The Singapore Grand Prix may have been the most exciting one on the track, however there seems to be even more excitement off the track that continued from the end of the Grand Prix into this weekend’s race at Suzuka.
While everyone is talking about who won, Carlos Sainz, there are less people talking about the championship leader, Max Verstappen, whose record-breaking 10-consecutive-race-win streak came to an end.
While he did not take the chequered flag as the winner, he walked away from Singapore with no grid penalties and no time penalties after 2 close calls in qualifying. While the FIA did not hand out penalties, many of the drivers thought that Verstappen impeded in the pit lane and then Yuki Tsunoda on track in Q2.
On Friday during the drivers briefing, Matteo Perini — who was part of the panel in Singapore — admitted Verstappen should have been penalised for his block on the Japanese driver. The same applies to Logan Sargeant who did the same to Stroll earlier in qualifying.
Photo credit: FIA
It was a topic discussed on media day in Japan on Thursday. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc were left surprised at the fact Verstappen wasn’t penalised.
Leclerc: “Yeah, I was a bit surprised especially the one in the pit lane because that could open quite bad situations in the future. But again, as Lewis said, it’s always an open discussion with the FIA and trying to explain them what our point of view is and improve and I’m sure we’ll have that discussion tomorrow evening at the briefing.”
Norris: “I don’t want to say too much because I’ll just create controversy. I think the blocking one on track should have been a penalty. He blocked someone: it’s not just down to the team. I know the team got the fine in the end of the day, but it should be down to the driver as well to look in his mirrors and see if someone’s… you’ve got nothing else to do the whole lap but look in your mirrors and it seems like a lot of people struggle to do that.
“But I think, yeah, it should just be harsher penalties for blocking people, because so many people do it, it ruins your lap, it ruins your Qualifying.
“It put Yuki out in Qualifying and he was P1 in Q1. Probably would have been P1 in Q3 if he went all the way.
“Just no one seems to care enough. It’s happened a lot this season, happened to me quite a few times, especially with certain teams – but it’s also down to the driver to look in the mirror, like they got nothing else to do but hit the recharge button and look in your mirror and people seem to struggle to be able to do that in Formula 1, which is a surprise.
“But yeah, I’ll probably block someone out this weekend and make myself look stupid.
Lewis Hamilton, however, decided to take it up with Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, but he stayed awfully quiet when the Mercedes driver pushed him.
SP: “Nothing to say on it.”
LH: “Are you sure? You always have an opinion on things.”
SP: “Not on this one. What should I say on this one? I pass it to you.”
LH: “Are you allowed to park at the end of the pit lane on the way out?”
SP: “Not wait for that long but it’s something that probably in the future we’re allowed now.”
LH: “Just asking, because I didn’t know. I don’t really know what to say. I didn’t really see them. Obviously I was in the pit lane when everyone stopped and I couldn’t see what was happening up ahead. And we always push and work as closely as we can with the FIA to have consistency and there is some variation so we have to continue to work on it for sure.”
Russell was the hardest however. He kept his comments brief, but they packed the punch.
Russell: “It was strange that they got away with that one… it doesn’t matter if you’re leading the championship or you’re last, if you get in somebody’s way, you should be penalised for it.”
Following the admission, it is now time to see if the FIA will be more strict with their enforcements this weekend should they be required.
