Grosjean escapes disqualification
After securing a promising third place during the qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean faced the threat of disqualification, and therefore a start from the back of the grid, due to a non-compliant floorboard. Fortunately for the Frenchman, the piece was only non-compliant because of an impact during Q2, which allowed him to avoid the penalty.
After securing third place in the Grand Prix qualifying, Romain Grosjean’s car was put under investigation by the stewards for a non-compliant floor. Indeed, the French driver’s floor exceeded the allowed flexion limit as per the regulations, which is strictly prohibited by Article 3.17.5.
Based on telemetry, it appears that the car suffered an impact during Q2 which resulted in a vertical shock with a force between -7.3g and 11.1g. Video evidence confirmed that the car bottomed out at turn 11, in accordance with what was indicated on the telemetry, the stewards’ report explains.
The commissioners also indicated that this collision had caused a fracture in the floor of the car. Furthermore, to verify that the floor was originally compliant with the regulations, a comparison was made with Kimi Räikkönen’s Lotus, which rendered its conclusions: « It was confirmed through physical comparison that the floor of car number 8 [that of Romain Grosjean] is identical to that of car number 7 [that of Kimi Räikkönen], which was intact. »
The history of the floor of Romain Grosjean’s single-seater indicated that this floor had traveled more than 600 kilometers, including an entire race. This led the stewards to make the following verdict: « The conclusion of the stewards is that the failure of this part is due to the impact during Q2, which therefore caused the car to be unable to comply with Article 3.17.5. Since this is due to accidental damage, no case of non-compliance is evident. »
