Whiting: the FIA should have disqualified Hamilton
Charlie Whiting believes that the FIA had no other choice but to exclude Lewis Hamilton from the qualifying session of the Spanish Grand Prix given the facts.
The qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix took place four days ago now, but the disqualification imposed by the FIA on Lewis Hamilton continues to be a talking point. According to Charlie Whiting, race director, the FIA had no choice but to exclude the McLaren driver.
According to him, as he told Auto Motor und Sport, given the facts, the decision made was the right one: « We had no margin for maneuver. If there is a violation, it applies to the entire session, not just a part. The qualifying session starts with Q1.»
Charlie Whiting believes that if the FIA had decided to simply erase Hamilton’s fastest time, it would have set a precedent that some teams might have tried to exploit, especially since, according to the German publication, only one or two samples are taken from the entire grid at the end of the qualifying.
Whiting also revealed that this is not the first time such a decision has been made, recalling that Sébastien Buemi was relegated to the back of the grid at the German Grand Prix following an irregularity in the fuel used by the Toro Rosso team. As the same fuel was used during Q1 and Q2 – the Swiss driver had not managed to move to Q3 – the FIA had no choice but to exclude the driver from the entire qualifying session, as was the case with Lewis Hamilton this weekend in Barcelona.
