Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Baku City Circuit, 2024

Verstappen faces post-race investigation along with five other drivers and McLaren

Formula 1

Posted on

| Written by

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix stewards are investigating incidents involving six drivers and one team following today’s race.

Max Verstappen is the highest-placed driver and only points-scorer who faces an investigation. The stewards are summoning him, as well as Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, over a Virtual Safety Car infringement.

The only VSC period occured on the penultimate lap of the race following the collision between Carlos Sainz Jnr and Sergio Perez. The stewards confirmed the quartet are under investigation for “overtaking under Virtual Safety Car conditions after the chequered flag.” Lewis Hamilton said on his radio he saw Hulkenberg overtaking him and other drivers.

Verstappen denied breaking the rules. “I didn’t pass under the Virtual Safety Car,” he told Sky. “We crossed the line, the race is finished, and there are a lot of examples in the past, this year as well, when we have done exactly the same thing. So for me I’m a bit surprised.”

The other two drivers under investigation are Sainz and Perez, for the collision between the pair which triggered the VSC. They tangled on the straight between turns two and three as the Red Bull driver tried to overtake the Ferrari. The pair have been summoned to meet the stewards at 5:30pm local time.

The stewards have also announced McLaren are under investigation for potentially breaking the rule which states: “team personnel are only allowed in the pit lane immediately before they are required to work on a car and must withdraw as soon as their work is complete.” The stewards have summoned them to a meeting at 5:20pm local time, noting they had “team personnel and equipment in pit lane during the race,” potentially when they were not allowed to.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Miss nothing from RaceFans

Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:

2024 Italian Grand Prix

Browse all 2024 Italian Grand Prix articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

21 comments on “Verstappen faces post-race investigation along with five other drivers and McLaren”

  1. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    15th September 2024, 14:14

    Hopefully a dq for verstappen. Purely to help make a title race. Losing another 10 points to help close the gap with the rest.

    1. Should be 5-10 sec at worst for this stuff.

      1. Plus license points and likely a fine.

    2. Wait, what? “hopefully a dq” just because you think that helps give us a closer title fight?

      First of all, as @esploratore mentions, at worst such an incident should mean a 5-10 second time added to the race time (and yes, points on his licence) and then, we already have a title fight ongoing. Sure, McLaren have done a lot to throw away many points that could have made it closer, but just look how fast things can go. If Max / Red Bull don’t find a clear upturn in form, they will have a tough job of keeping that lead.

    3. For the show

      1. Well exactly. And we know how that ended.

    4. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
      15th September 2024, 15:07

      What?!? That’d be the kind of stewarding that made 2021 such a farce.

      1. as bad a video refs NRL league Australia

      2. Thinking about it, such massive penalties to keep a championship fight going aren’t new, there’s the 1994 example, with schumacher dominating, being dq’d by 3 races (+ a plank dq at spa, I think) to make an exciting fight for the championship.

        1. They might as well not bother actually racing,sort it out in the pub over a pint and a bag of crisps F1 is pathetic.

  2. Not quite sure why Perez is feeling so aggrieved, he had every chance to avoid an accident but decided to execute a PIT maneuver, instead.

    1. A move he learnt from Kmag in Monaco

    2. @davids He can’t really do close racing. His move on Leclerc was fine, he had to go for it, but obviously he was (too) determined not to lose out to Sainz when Leclerc blocked him and, as always, kept towards the other driver a little too much. He almost always races the same way, But on a high speed section with drivers offline, just a little more margin for error is needed. I guess it’ll be judged as a racing incident.

    3. I think it’s a matter of him possibly losing the last podium of his career: his performance over the season could overall leave him without a seat, at least a red bull seat, in 2025, and given red bull’s form and his own; also baku is a race he’s good at and he knew it.

      1. I wonder what even qualified Checko to be part of any top team, never mind RBR. His CV could only reflect that he is mostly wearing blinkers. His whole carrier is more decorated with flashes of success than consistency….he was beaten by MV left and right.

  3. Well, of course they passed the chequered flag during the VSC just like every other driver who finished the race since the race finished under neutralized conditions.
    Therefore, I don’t get what this is truly about.

  4. BLS (@brightlampshade)
    15th September 2024, 14:25

    Looks like the drivers forgot what a post race VSC means. Depends how serious the FIA feel this is, I imagine the usual penalty is 10s for this sort of thing?
    If it is 10s that’s enough to move Verstappen behind Alonso after his late pitstop, the others being already out of the points.
    We’ll see.

  5. Let me guess, no further action…

  6. I am quite confused at the moment.

    Whom did Verstappen allegedly overtake? He was on his own, wasn´t he? Behind Russel and long way ahead of Alonso.

    Also Hulkenberg fell of the points somehow in the last laps and he also overtook someone?

    As for McLaren, did they at some point do the dummy “run out of the garrage” or is this something else?

    1. No it’s something else. J.H. has now done 3 consecutive races. Perhaps he won’t be doing another for a while and wants to leave his mark on this race. Any of anyone’s wildest speculations is still in play.

  7. When was the last time we had a race end under the VSC? I’d be surprised if they got anything more then a reprimand, but if this happened last and it was punished then you’d expect the same to happen here as well.

    I’d be surprised if McLaren get punished though. A reprimand maybe, but teams have been sending pit crews out to the pit lanes as dummy’s for ages now without consequences. If McLaren get penalised, then Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull have a lot of debt to repay on that front. Even in this race I’d be surprised if Ferrari didn’t do this as well, although it never showed it for either teams.

    I’m honestly surprised it even got noted, but at the same time the FIA does need to crack down on it a bit. It’s become a mockery of the rules with what the likes of Mercedes were doing with their fake pit stops back in 17 onwards. I think it’d be unfair to penalise McLaren for this after letting it go unpunished for so long, but make a note of it at the next team briefings that they’ll be enforcing it more tightly going forward. Especially after the yellow flag ruining Lando’s qualifying and Piastri’s qualifying in Austria, it seems like McLaren has been quite unfortunate with the FIA deciding to change their minds on certain rules.

Comments are closed.