Romain Grosjean, Haas, Singapore, 2018

Grosjean at risk of ban after latest penalty

2018 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Romain Grosjean is in danger of picking up a race ban if he incurs another penalty before the end of the season.

The Haas driver was given two penalty points for an incident in today’s race, moving him onto a total of nine. Drivers are automatically given one-race bans if they reach 12 penalty points in a 12-month period, and the most severe incidents have been punished with up to three penalty points.

Grosjean will not have any penalty points deducted from his total until the end of next month. He will lose one point on October 29th and a further two points on November 12th.

He was penalised for failing to observe blue flags when race leader Lewis Hamilton caught him during today’s race.

Grosjean was banned from taking part in the 2012 Italian Grand Prix after being found to have triggered a multi-car crash in the previous race at Spa-Francorchamps. This is the last occasion an F1 driver was given a ban, and it prompted the introduction of the penalty points system.

Sergey Sirotkin was also given two penalty points for forcing Brendon Hartley off the track during the race. He is now on a total of six.

The stewards cleared Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez over their first lap clash and also took no action against Kevin Magnussen over his incident with Brendon Hartley.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2018 F1 season

Browse all 2018 F1 season 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.

34 comments on “Grosjean at risk of ban after latest penalty”

  1. A good cycle if he becomes the first driver to be given a ban following the introduction of this system which was a response to his own ban.

    1. It would be great :)

  2. No points for Checo’s attack on Sirotkin? If not I’m shocked. That was such a blatant side-swipe, utterly unsporting and illegal and crucially both intentional and knowingly dangerous, surely that merits penalty points?
    Gotta say I felt pretty sad for Perez that race. I’ve always been a fan since his days alongside Kobayashi, both of them making the most of the tools available to fight valiantly. He’s a cheery face and generally a credit to the sport and his team. But every now and then he comes apart and puts a great big black mark against his name, and then, after pitying his victim (Ocon and Sirotkin in this bumper-bad race) you have to pity him for just losing it and thus losing what makes him appealing.
    Much the same with Grosjean, of course. A talented, personable driver who has these white-outs where he gets the basics wrong and trashes all good opinion of him.

    1. Good point, I hadn’t thought about that, we have seen penalty points for less flagrant moves.

      1. Yep. VES got 2 points for that Monza thing with Bottas, wich was apperantly way more worse compared to what Perez did..

    2. @picasso-19d-ftw, Perez was given an additional points penalty (3 points) on top of the penalty which he served in the race.

      1. Ok. I missed that.

        1. They never announce penalty points during the race, but those are available in FIA website stewards’ decisions, which I use as main source for them.

        1. Phew!

      2. Ah thanks, I’m glad/sad about that. In which case feel free to mentally edit my original comment to reflect on how he richly/regrettably deserved those 3 points! I figured they would only add these post-race but didn’t see them mentioned above.

    3. Looks like David Tremayne shares this view:
      “I’m a big fan of Sergio Perez. More often than not, he drives like a tiger and these days he generally steers clear of some of the trouble he used to get into in his early days in F1.
      But every so often, that bad boy sneaks back, as it did with Esteban Ocon in Baku and Spa last year. And that saddens me.”
      (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.dt's-10-thoughts-on-singapore-and-beyond)
      He also seems to think Sirotkin deserved penalising in the blue flags incident, but for my money it was Grosjean who was directly in front of Hamilton, and Grosjean’s decision to attempt overtakes rather than make way for the leader behind him. I agree with DT about stronger penalties for blue flag infringements though. They have 3 corners grace I think, so there should be a warning after 4 corners. Why not then a 5 second penalty after 5, a black flag after 6? OK, warnings and penalties go via the team but this is time-sensitive so there needs to be (a) a rapidly escalating scale and (b) efficient communication to the offender that penalties are coming and will quickly pile up.

  3. Was anyone else surprised Sirotkin didn’t also get a penalty at the same time as GRO for ignoring the blue flag? It seemed to me they were both ignoring the flag during their fight. I am not saying GRO penalty was unfair.

    1. Sirotkin was ahead Hamilton was not directly behind him.
      And he gave room the moment he was past by Grosjean, but Hamilton had lost momentum.

    2. @blueruck I would have been very surprised and disappointed if he had got a penalty. What do you expect him to do, let Grosjean past so Hamilton can go past as well? The incident was 100% Grosjean’s problem. If he’d stopped attacking, let Hamilton past, then started again he wouldn’t have lost anything.

      1. @tflb

        The incident was 100% Grosjean’s problem. If he’d stopped attacking, let Hamilton past, then started again he wouldn’t have lost anything.

        Why should he have stopped attacking, There out there racing & for all he knew that may have been his best shot at getting past. I mean how many laps was Perez behind Sitotkin with no decent shot at getting past?

        If you get yourself into a position to attack someone & overtake them you have to take it as you never know when you may get another.

        1. @stefmeister Well that’s a different argument, basically whether blue flags should be used or not. Fact is by the letter of the law Grosjean was in the wrong, Sirotkin wasn’t.

    3. I was surprised too

  4. Who is HAAS reserve driver ?

    1. Ironicaly Santino Ferruci

      1. Longer term …. just about anybody.

      2. Well, let’s hope to the Lord that Grosjean behaves himself. Not that is particularly likely…

    2. While not officially their reserve driver, I would think Giovinazzi would take the spot if Grosjean would be banned for one race.

  5. Grosjean can be a very fast driver at times, but overall he isn’t safe enough and consistent enough. Over a season he doesn’t extract the maximum amount of points from the opportunities served to him, in my opinion.

    I hope Gunter Steiner can arrange a deal with Toto Wolff and put Ocon in that car for 1-2 years. (and no, I don’t buy it that a Mercedes driver cannot drive a Ferrari powered car, Haas hasn’t sold their soul entirely to the red boys)

    1. Pascal did it last year anyway.

  6. Highlights why I think they should ditch the blue flag rules & go back to the pre-1995 meaning of them simply been a warning that a faster car is behind you (As is still the case elsewhere).

    Yes the leaders been held up would be frustrating for them & even be seen as unfair in some cases…. However when your in a poor car & struggling as it is it’s just as frustrating & just as unfair on them to be expected to jump out of the way, Especially when there racing.

    Grosjean & Sirotkin were racing hard for position & while it may not have been for points I hate how there expected to halt there battle just because a faster car has to be let past them. Yes in this case it was for 15th or something but it could have just as easily been for 10th & could also have been the only shot Grosjean had to get by.

    1. When the lead cars have seen the flag, the back markers don’t complete full race distance if they have been lapped, that should tell you something.
      Lapped cars are in a different race, if races were run from one city to another, you will never see a car you’ve overtaken and slower than you, again.

    2. Agreed. I think going back to just advisory blue flags would open the door to more shenanigans, but that as the rules are they are harming the racing spectacle which is also counter productive. Some leniency should be given when it’s a wheel to wheel fight like what was happening here. They have until the largest straight to let the leaders by. That will reduce the unfair pick effect of being unable to defend against a car following the leader through the inside of a corner and the like, and not ruin their battle.

      Being out of the points during the race shouldn’t mean their races are rendered meaningless either. Drivers down out of the points are still fighting for their race careers, and proving that they can race and win against other drivers which is a skill they only get to demonstrate during the races themselves. Forcing them to halt their battles throughout the race to let cars through detracts from racing and detracts from their ability to showcase their skills for the driver market. They shouldn’t be penalized for doing this, even if it inconveniences the leaders for a lap.

      1. So by implication, drivers battling for wins can have their race disrupted by back markers, and back markers can’t have their races disrupted by actually being behind.
        We seem to not realise that a car behind you and I mean several kilometers behind you, can not in any way be an obstacle to your path.

    3. That doesn’t work anymore nowadays, with cars being so very earo sensetive. Plus with engine customers playing a role it would become very unfair. Sauber and Haas only letting Ferrari through and holding up the rest, WIlliams and FI letting only Merc’s through and TR letting only RBR through.
      How would you think Monaco wil go?

  7. Keith, could you publish the driver penalty table?

  8. Perez deserves a race ban for his attack on Sirotkin.

    1. Precendent was set last year after Baku and its highly unlikely we will ever see a race ban for such “light”(in whiting opinion) incidents.

Comments are closed.