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F1 race finish rules are “fine as they are” despite Melbourne chaos
The Melbourne race was red-flagged for the third and final time on lap 57 of 58 after a chaotic restart, causing a 30-minute delay to determine how the event would end.
With one lap remaining, the safety car led the surviving cars across the line in the order they had been restarted last time, bringing the race to an anticlimactic end and dealing a blow to the eliminated drivers.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, one of the drivers who crashed on the final lap restart, sprinted out of the media pen after seeing his competitor follow the safety car into the final lap as he finished last A lap decision prevented scoring.
FIA race control followed the rulebook, teeing off the way the race ended, but questions were raised about whether the rules themselves needed to be re-examined to prevent a repeat of the chaos at Albert Park.
But Alpine’s Szafnauer, who also saw his fellow driver Esteban Ocon scoreless after a collision with Gasly, thought the rules were “good” because it was impossible to satisfy all situations.
“In this case, if you say: ‘Okay, okay, let’s change the rules because it’s going to help,’ there are other situations where the opposite happens,” Szafnauer said.
“The rules are what they are, and whatever they are, you can’t change them during the game.
“After the season, if you look back, it’s going to be 50-50, for better or for worse, because we’ll have a lot of different situations and sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t.
“So, I think the rules are fine now.
Marshals remove Esteban Ocon’s damaged car Alpine A523 from the track after the race
Photography: Simon Galloway / motorsport pictures
“My real belief is that we can have these scenarios … you have to start with the rules and then follow them.
“Now, if we want to look at them after the fact, it’s okay, let the sporting director look at it.”
He then joked: “If we were to change the rules, I’d make it a 55-lap race. That’s what I’d do,” referring to the stage where the two Alps are still on points.
Asked if Alpine pushed to the end of the race before finishing the final lap, Szafnauer said: “Of course, we definitely pushed because we could have been there.
“The second safety car line was before Turn 1, so Pierre was probably around fourth.
“Yes, of course we asked them to. We weren’t sure what was going to happen.
“But I think they made the right decision. It’s the rules, so you have to play by the rules.”
Lewis Hamilton is satisfied after finishing runner-up at the Spanish Grand Prix as the best driver behind Max Verstappen. The British driver was also happy to answer questions about his contract and how he might challenge Verstappen in the future.
On lap 56 of 66 in a round dominated by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, Alfa Romeo driver Zhou used DRS to challenge Tsunoda for 9th on the outside entering Turn 1 right hand.
But as the corner transitioned into Turn 2, Chow appeared to shake his machine to the left, before rejoining the track several car lengths behind Kakuda into the escape lane.
The FIA stewards reviewed the incident and ruled that Zhou was ahead at the apex of Turn 1 and therefore had the right to enter the race room.
As Tsunoda was found violating the International Sports Code, he received a 5-second penalty and dropped to 12th without points. Zhou, meanwhile, scored two points for ninth.
Asked by Autosport about his reaction, Tsunoda said: “It’s a ridiculous penalty and it feels really unfair.”
Recalling his take on events, Tsunoda thought Zhou had “pretended” to run out of space and that there was “definitely” room to keep the Alfa Romeo on track.
He said: “I left the room when I saw (Zhou Lai), I think he gave up early on.
“He went outside and pretended he was being forced out, but he didn’t. Sure enough, there was room outside.
“Obviously I put pressure on him, but there was still space, so I don’t understand why it was a penalty. It felt really unfair, really harsh.”
Yuki Tsunoda, Scuderia AlphaTauri in the paddock
Photography: Jack Grant / motorsport pictures
Tsunoda said he was not aware of the penalty until it reached the finish line, and believes drivers and teams should be able to present their defense to the FIA before the final ruling is given.
He said: “After I just heard the checkered flag, I was really happy. But after listening to that radio, I was really disappointed.
“At the same time, (I think) it’s a bit of a curiosity … it’s good to have some discussion with the FIA because they gave five seconds without any discussion and the race was over.
“So, it didn’t feel fair … (I felt) exhausted and flat.”
In contrast, Zhou believes that this is a dunk penalty for Kakuda. He said: “It’s very simple.
“Going into Turn 1 and into the middle, I was in the lead and I actually gave a lot of space. Then I saw that he (and him) didn’t stop.
“(He tried to) release the brakes (but he) drove me away and I had to take avoidance action and (use) the escape route or we would collide.
“So, it was tricky after that because I had a lot of rubbish on my tyres. But in the end, I was able to stay in the right position behind him and regain the position.”
Nick de Vries finished the Spanish GP with the same finish he started with: fourteenth. The AlphaTauri driver was aiming for points on the familiar track of Barcelona, but a poor start prevented him from actually breaking into the top ten.
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