[Live] Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix 2022 #7

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Charles Leclerc avoided a potential penalty at Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix for missing the weighbridge in qualifying thanks to the quick reactions of his Ferrari team.

The Monegasque driver had been called in for a weight check towards the end of Q2, but did not see the signal and pushed on down the pitlane.

Had he gone to his Ferrari garage and the mechanics worked on the car, even just changing tyres, then that would have been enough to earn him a penalty for breaching the rules.

However, Ferrari had quickly spotted that the weighbridge request had been missed and immediately ordered the pole man to stop.

Mechanics then ran up the pitlane to push him back for the checks, which were passed without problem.

Leclerc confessed that stopping had been totally down to his Ferrari team as he had not spotted the stop sign, and actually doesn't even know where it was.

"It's a very tricky one here, because we get into the pits and I actually don't even know where the panel is, and whether it's on the right or left," he said. "But it's very far, far right or far left, so you don't look in that direction.

"Actually, I didn't see at all that I was called to the weighbridge. But luckily for me, the team saw the alarm and just told me to stop and they pushed me back. It wasn't great for being into the same sequence of the others after that, but again, we got out of this tricky situation."

F1's rules are pretty strict when it comes to drivers missing the weighbridge and teams working on the cars.

At the 2019 Baku Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly had to start from the pitlane after missing a weight check in practice and Red Bull worked on his car – while the same happened to Sergio Perez at that year's United States Grand Prix.

F1's rules are clear that missing a weighbridge will only escape sanction if teams immediately respond to their drivers' error.

Article 35.1 b) states: "Any driver who fails to stop when asked to do so, and then fails to bring the car back to the FIA garage, or if work is carried out on the car before it is returned to the FIA garage, will be referred to the stewards."

The regulations later state that the penalties for a breach can be quite severe.

"In the event of any breach of these provisions for the weighing of cars the stewards may drop the driver such number of grid positions as they consider appropriate or disqualify him from the sprint session or the race," it states.

Leclerc's escape is not the first time that drivers have had to rely on the actions of their teams to save them from a penalty for missing a penalty.

The tricky layout of the Monaco pitlane makes it easy for drivers to not see the weighbridge sign, with Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg having all famously missed it in qualifying back in 2019.

In similar circumstances, the incidents were spotted immediately by their teams and they were returned for checks before any work was done on the car.

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Max Verstappen thinks that Formula 1’s red flag rules tempt drivers to take too many risks on final runs in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

For the second year running, Verstappen saw his hopes of a top grid slot dashed by someone else’s mistake bringing out a red flag and stopping the qualifying session.

Last year, pole position man Charles Leclerc crashed at the Swimming Pool exit chicane and brought out the red flags, while this time it was a spin from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez that brought things to a halt.

A frustrated Verstappen admitted that it ‘sucks’ that drivers who take things too far and crash get away with keeping their grid positions.

“It is irritating and a pity of course that the one who put it in the wall was my team-mate,” he said.

“But in the end you don't get a penalty for that. So if you know you have a good first run, then you can think: ‘ah well, you know what, I'll park it and tactically send it into the wall.’ You could do that.”

Leclerc's crash last year prompted some debate about whether or not F1 should adopt red flag rules used in other categories – where drivers who stop sessions lose their best laps.

In the end, the discussions did not move forward and right now there is no downside to a driver bringing out a red flag.

Asked if the rules needed to change, Verstappen said: “That's something we've been working on for a while.

“It's nice for the person who hangs it in the wall. But for me it's a bummer, of course.”

Lack of front end
Verstappen has had a weekend where he hasn’t appeared to be as comfortable with the Red Bull as team-mate Sergio Perez.

The world champion will start fourth on the grid, one place behind his Mexican team-mate.

Reflecting on what has happened, Verstappen thinks setup choices have not given him the sharp front end that he likes in a car – although he believes a front row slot was potentially still on the cards.

“We tried a few things with the car in practice and not all of those things worked out well,” he said.

“Then we changed a few things for qualifying, which I think made it a bit better.

“I just didn't have enough grip the whole time, at the front. And here in Monaco it is very important that the car turns very quickly and I didn't have that. And then you just lose a lot of time because you can’t attack the corners.

“He [Perez] is just feeling a bit more comfortable. He had the balance more how he wanted it. He can drive with a bit more understeer, he likes that. But for me the car has to be very strong at the front.”

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Op zondag 29 mei 2022 10:14 schreef Rode_Wijn het volgende:

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