Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have both received a one-place grid drop after the qualifying session for the F1 Bahrain GP. Both Mercedes drivers began queuing in the pit lane before the red flag, caused by Ocon, was officially over.
Before this grid drop, Antonelli had qualified in fourth, the best of his rookie season so far. Russell had qualified on the front row. Now, the Mercedes drivers will line up for the race in P3 and P5.
Mercedes drivers queuing before the session restarted
Haas driver Esteban Ocon caused a red flag during Q2. The French driver spun out of Turn 3 at qualifying for the Bahrain GP. Ocon crashed into the barriers at high speed, pausing the session. He reported on the radio that he was okay and he was able to get out of his car.
His car sustained significant damage. The session therefore paused with 11 minutes to go to recover his vehicle and make repairs to the barriers.
Mercedes were eager to get both of their drivers to the front of the queue in the pit lane when the Q2 session resumed. So keen that they sent their drivers out before the session had officially restarted, an infringement of the FIA rules.
During pauses, the FIA gives teams an estimated restart time, and a confirmed restart time. Mercedes sent their drivers into the fast lane for the estimated time.
FIA determine Mercedes rule infringement
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, represented the team at the FIA meeting. He argued that Mercedes had “misinterpreted” the qualifying restart time.
The FIA report reads:
“The team representative, Mr Shovlin, in evidence stated that he gave the instruction for the cars to be released, in error, having misinterpreted the message posted on page 3 of the Timing Screen, “estimated re-start time” to be a message advising the actual re-start time. He argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining (11 minutes) for other teams to perform their run plans.
“It was also noted that the team’s Sporting Director, Mr Meadows, was not present at the event and that normally he would be involved in the release process.”
The FIA felt that the Mercedes drivers leaving their pit boxes early could have given them an unfair advantage over the other teams. Although the fault lies with the team rather than its drivers, a sporting penalty was still decided as appropriate.
Furthermore, the nature of the infringement also meant that the incident was worthy of a grid penalty rather than just a fine.
“The FIA Single Seater Sporting Director stated that such a move could be a sporting advantage in that it could enable a team to perform its run plan whereas other teams may not be able to.
“The Stewards agree with this view particularly where there are only a few minutes remaining in the session.
“The FIA Sporting Director argued that there needed to be a sporting penalty rather than a team fine, otherwise in future teams would release their cars as soon as the estimated re-start time was published. The Stewards agree with this view.”
Penalty could have been more severe
Mercedes argued to the FIA and the stewards that the incident was not intentional to gain an advantage.
Regardless of intention, the team received a penalty due to a possible advantage that could be gained.
The FIA did, however, take the lack of intention into account and handed out a less severe penalty.
“Mr Shovlin argued that it was possible to give a non sporting penalty if the Stewards declared that it was not to be taken as a precedent but also stated that if a sporting penalty was to be given, it should be mitigated.
“The Stewards agreed with the view that this breach required a sporting penalty however accept that the breach was unintentional and a genuine mistake by the team for which Mr Shovlin apologised. We decide to impose a one position grid penalty. A similar breach in different circumstances, could entail a more severe sporting penalty, in future.”
