This is why the world champion was not penalized despite the three alleged irregularities that saw him protagonist in qualifying for the Singapore GP
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Salvuss
Suddenly, after 14 GPs of absolute domination, Red Bull was back among humans in Singapore. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, forced to live with a setup that was too unstable all weekend, were even excluded in Q2. But it is not only in terms of performance that Saturday at Marina Bay is to be forgotten for the world champion team, given that Verstappen ended up under investigation for three different episodes of “impeding” – that is, maneuvers to obstruct other drivers – which made the post-qualifying particularly fiery: Max got away with two simple reprimands with no direct consequences (only at the fifth official warning of the season does a driver have to pay a ten-place penalty on the starting grid) and this has inevitably led to discussion of the FIA’s excessive tendency to turn a blind eye when the Dutchman commits an alleged irregularity.
IMPEDING IN THE PIT LANE
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The first suspicious maneuver relates to the second and final attempt in Q1, when the Dutch champion literally stopped in the pit lane for more than ten seconds in order to gain some space from the cars in front and, therefore, get away from the traffic on the track. A maneuver not permitted by the regulation, which prohibits stopping in the so-called “fast-lane”, the external part of the pit lane. The complaints from George Russell and Charles Leclerc were immediate (“You can’t stop like this”, said the Ferrari driver via radio), blocked by the Red Bull number 1. The response from the Race Direction, in this case led by the former Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi? “The appropriate penalty is a reprimand” essentially because the irregular maneuver was ineffective: Verstappen in fact had to follow other slow cars just a few corners later, while the drivers behind Max could have overtaken him, although “it would still be preferable to get out of the box in an orderly manner”. A motivation that all in all standsif only because in recent times we have never seen such impediment in the pit lane.
THE RISK WITH SARGEANT
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Again in the final phase of Q1, and specifically a few seconds after the problematic exit from the pits which brought him under the scrutiny of the stewards for the first time, Verstappen was then guilty of another borderline situation. In the train of cars waiting to launch themselves for the last attempt, unlike all his other colleagues Max remained too far to the right, dangerously close to the ideal line exiting turn 17 while Logan Sargeant’s Williams passed at full throttle. A potentially dangerous situation given the large difference in speed, but which did not create a real obstacle to the American driver’s lap. In this case, the judges therefore correctly decided not to sanction the world champion, who remained a little too long on the right, but chose not to move for safety reasons given that there were other riders who were overtaking him on the left.
THE TSUNODA CASE
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Finally, the question relating to the obstacle that Max created for his “almost-mate” Yuki Tsunoda is of a very different nature: the AlphaTauri driver in fact had to abort the first attempt in Q2 precisely because of the presence of Verstappen, who was still racing and therefore proceeded slowly in full trajectory. According to the Race Direction, the Dutchman “moved rather late” effectively damaging the young Japanese, with the partial mitigating factor of not having been “timely warned by the pits”. Furthermore, it is very curious that the judges noted theabsence of AlphaTauri representatives (satellite team owned by Red Bull) during the hearing to decide on the case: a circumstance which perhaps could have partly influenced the choice to pardon Max with the second reprimand of the day. And if it is not the first time that AlphaTauri (or Toro Rosso) and Red Bull help each other on and off the track, it is always useful to remember that the two teams are formally separate entities.
FIA TOO SOFT?
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In general, especially considering this last episode with Tsunoda, a penalty of three positions on the starting grid would not have been at all severe, the same one already inflicted on six other similar occasions during the season: in Monte Carlo, for example, for the same maneuver (and even with the justification of not having been promptly warned by the pits), Leclerc had been dropped three spaces back at the start for having obstructed Norris under the tunnel. With Verstappen, however, we chose not to choose: he will start 11th and his race will still be uphill due to the difficulties in overtaking on a track like this, especially considering Red Bull’s performance this weekend. In a World Championship that Max will win with several races to spare and more than 150 points ahead, breaking all possible records, perhaps it would have been more useful to show that he knows how to use a heavy hand rather than further fuel the theories according to which the FIA is too soft if Dutch is involved.
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