Nicholas Latifi and Guanyu Zhou experienced a Formula 1 race to forget in Singapore. The two collided early in the race and subsequently retired. The race management of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) did not hesitate and imposed a grid penalty on Latifi, who was held responsible for the accident in his Williams. The Canadian is anything but happy with that.
The race stewards ruled against the Canadian because he didn’t leave a car’s width of space in the duel and is said to have caused the collision. At the Japanese Grand Prix, the Williams driver will therefore be moved back five places on the grid. In addition, Latifi received two penalty points on his account. But why isn’t Latifi happy with the FIA’s offense?
“Of course I’m disappointed not to have finished the race,” he told Motorsport-Total.com. “I then went to the race commission as they made the decision without speaking to the drivers, which I find a little strange. We were both out of the race so there was no rush to make a decision. If so something happens, both pilots are usually spoken to.”
No chance to see Zhou
Latifi used his normal line in the tackle and just didn’t see Zhou. That is also the reason, according to the Canadian, why he did not leave any space for a car. “He drove perfectly into my blind spot exiting the corner. I looked in both mirrors, you can see that in the onboard recording. I looked left and right, but didn’t see him.”
That’s why Latifi took his usual line and didn’t create any additional space. “If it’s just about the rule that I didn’t leave enough space, then I understand why I got the penalty,” says the Canadian, who also sees the Chinese as responsible for driving into the blind spot be.
Latifi is not angry about the penalty itself, but about the behavior of the race stewards, who did not want to talk about the incident after the race. “And is that really the right penalty?” asks the Williams driver. “It’s the same punishment that you [Valtteri] Bottas when he was bowling with other cars in Hungary last year. It was way worse than that one-on-one crash.”
Harsh punishment for no reason?
According to the Canadian, accidents like the one with Zhou have only ever resulted in a penalty of three places. The conversation that the Williams driver sought with the race director after the Grand Prix was not very fruitful either, as the stewards were still busy with the Sergio Perez incident.
Latifi demands more consistency, like many drivers before him: “Why don’t you talk to both drivers, which is done 99 percent of the time? If they then come to the same decision and punish me, that’s totally fine with me,” says he clear. “They were busy with the Red Bull incident, but still they should have just officially summoned us to the commissioners, which was not the case.”