Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has suggested that the increasing complexity of F1’s sporting regulations is leading to increased instances of contradictions.
The latest example came in China, when Aston Martin protested the results of qualifying when Carlos Sainz was able to continue taking part in the session despite bringing out a red flag by spinning midway through Q2.
In the past, a car that had stopped on or by the side of the track in a way that stopped the session was not then allowed to resume. But in this case Sainz, was able to get underway under his own power and return to the pits.
After receiving a new front wing and a check-over of the Ferrari, Sainz set a good enough time to get him through to the final round with Aston driver Lance Stroll eliminated in P11.
Aston protested the outcome as Sainz had been listed as ‘stopped’ on the race control system, but the stewards decided that being ‘stopped’ in the sense of the sporting regulations meant not being able to restart – which Sainz did.
Vasseur was subsequently asked by the media whether the wording of Article 39.6 was now clear, and the Ferrari boss still sounded somewhat uncertain.
“I don’t know if it’s clear, but for sure we need to have some understanding of what has happened,” he said. “We asked if we can restart, [the race director] said yes, and it was end of the story.
“I think on this one, an easy clarification,” he said. “But for sure, what is true is that the regulation is more and more complicated,” adding: “When I started the job, the sporting regulation was 20 pages, today, it’s 75.
“You will always find loopholes because you have cross-articles,” he added. “It’s tricky because as a consequence the teams are getting bigger and bigger with more and more lawyers.
“I remember a couple of years ago when Kimi [Raikkonen] spun on the out-lap at Imola,” he said. “We had two different articles reporting to the same case, one saying black and the other one saying white.”
“At the end of the day, we are in the exact same situation as with the technical regulation: we’re all trying to find a loophole.”
Although Aston Martin failed in its attempt to protest the qualifying results in China, it’s been one of the most effective teams in terms of winning protests in the past.
Aston got Fernando Alonso’s podium at the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP reinstated, and ensured track limit infractions were fully analysed at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix which improved the team’s final classification.
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Vasseur: Increasing complexity of F1 sporting rules ‘contradictory’ F1i.com.
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