F1 Talk: Stewards Needed to Take Action after Q3 Farce

What a crazy day at Monza. Charles Leclerc took pole position from Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas with Sebastian Vettel in fourth.

All the talk though was about the farce in Q3 which saw all 10 cars going at road car speed through the first part of the lap.

In my opinion, it was a shambles. This situation was always going to happen and it has been brewing for a while.

Already in 2019, we have seen drivers look for the slipstream at places such as China, Azerbaijan and last weekend in Belgium so it is no surprise at all to see them not want to be at the front of the queue on the track that rewards being in the slipstream the most.

At least half a second was to be gained from being 3-4 seconds behind another car throughout a lap, it was a no brainer to not be first in the train.

As soon as the cars left the pitlane with only two minutes to go, it was inevitable that some cars would not make the finish line, I did not expect eight drivers to not make it though. While this isn’t the first time this has happened in motorsport, it’s a unique situation for F1.

I am sure you have all seen what has happened and I am bewildered as to how Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz and especially Nico Hulkenberg did not get penalties. Hulkenberg left the track for absolutely no reason and got away with it! Mad.

Imagine if there was one or two cars on a flying lap (just like in the F3 qualifying on Friday) and they came across eight cars going that slowly through a normally flat out corner. The drivers at the front of the queue caused the cars to go slowly, the cars behind had nowhere to go and could not overtake so Hulkenberg, Stroll, Sainz and maybe Vettel should have been penalised.

Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz were handed reprimand, with the enforcers commenting; “The Stewards believe that the drivers … played a significant role in the backing up of cars at a critical stage of the final out lap for Q3. The Stewards strongly recommend that the FIA expedite a solution to this type of situation.”

Just like Hamilton has said, something will only be done when a big crash happens. It should not need to get to that stage for something to be done. The stewards have now set a precedent and the drivers will do it again, knowing they can get away with a penalty.

Also in qualifying, Bottas was able to keep his lap despite a red flag being called before he got to the finish line. Worse still, he set a purple sector going through the Parabolica where there were double waved yellow flags due to Kimi Raikkonen stuck in the gravel after crashing.

By ‘purple sector’ I mean he went fastest of all through the mini sector that shows the time going through the last corner only. There are mini sectors all the way around the lap.

It’s crazy how the FIA go on about safety so much and still don’t clamp down hard on things like this, especially after the tragic events of Suzuka 2014. By not doing anything now, another horrible accident where another car could spin off and hit another car which has already crashed is waiting to happen. Events of the last week have highlighted the importance of safety in our sport and small oversights should not go unnoticed at this time.

Then, there is Sebastian Vettel. The stewards said any driver who goes all four wheels off the track at the final corner will have their lap time deleted. Vettel did exactly this, what happens, nothing he gets away with it.

Why state some rules and not enforce them? No point saying, ‘oh he was only a few millimetres outside’ when drivers and cars have been disqualified for technical infringements which have had hardly any effect on he result then not penalise something like this.

Vettel gets a penalty for Canada which was very harsh and very much arguable but then does not get a penalty for something that is black and white.

Finally there was the quick tear up of the sausage kerb on the outside of Parabolica. Despite a driver in Italian F4 getting launched there last year and after many accidents in the past (including Sophia Floersch’s scary accident at Macau last year) being caused by speed bumps. Today Alex Peroni added to that list after a high speed impact during the F3 Feature race, where the marshals were extremely lucky.

• Not doing anything about a driver not obeying double waved yellow flags or a red flag
• Not penalising anyone for blocking the track and going unnecessarily slowly
• Leaving a kerb on the outside of a fast corner.

We do not need a driver to be seriously hurt (or worse) for changes to be made, enforce penalties now so the drivers get the message before something nasty happens.