F1 seeks Monza quali mess x
Debacle at Italian GP to be discussed with F1 race director this weekend
Formula 1 teams will meet with race director Michael Masi at the Singapore Grand Prix to try to find a solution to the problem of drivers backing each other up in qualifying after the Italian GP mess, and have already been simulating possible fixes.
The Q3 session at Monza descended into farce when the nine drivers left running after Kimi Raikkonen’s early crash all deliberately went slowly to try to avoid being at the front of the train and giving slipstreams to their rivals. In doing so, the majority delayed themselves so much that they were unable to get a final flying lap in.
While Nico Hulkenberg,
Carlos Sainz Jr and Lance Stroll were reprimanded for driving unnecessarily slowly, the race stewards also asked the FIA to seek ways to avoid a repeat scenario in the future.
Masi says that teams have already started working through simulations of ideas to resolve the matter after problems were first highlighted in Belgium, and a get-together has been scheduled for the next F1 event to discuss the next steps.
“It is something we discussed following Spa and I think everyone in the room, sporting directors and drivers, acknowledged that there is not a simple regulatory fix for it,” explained Masi.
“We will have a more in-depth discussion in Singapore and a few of the teams have already come up with simulations and ideas of how that could possibly be rectified, because it is in everyone’s best interest.”
Although Masi had warned before qualifying in Italy that anyone going excessively slowly would risk being penalised, that was not enough to stop drivers trying to play games.
But Masi said that it was hard to feel too let down by how the drivers behaved because the competitive benefits of getting a slipstream were so obvious.
“At the end of the day they are all elite sportsmen trying to get the maximum out of it,” he said.
Back in 2013, a similar qualifying embarassment at a World Touring Car Championship race at the Salzburgring, when drivers backed each other up and failed to complete a second flying lap, prompted the stewards to come down hard and charge them with bringing the sport into disrepute. Fines and grid penalties were ultimately handed out to 14 drivers.
Masi said he could not judge why the stewards at Monza only opted to hand out reprimands for what happened in F1, but pointed out that the WTCC incident was now a long time ago in motorsport terms.
“I can’t say what was in the stewards’ mind because I wasn’t in there,” he said. “But I think the advantage that we have from 2013 to 2019 is technology has evolved.
“We are very fortunate that we have a whole lot of different angles of cameras, telemetry, data and radio. Trying to draw analogies to six years ago, and even in some regards trying to draw comparison with 12 months ago... things have really moved on and attitudes have changed.”