FIA: Towards a Revision of the Penalty System?
Measures could be taken in the more or less long term in F1 to modify penalties and their scale during Grand Prix, as announced by Derek Warwick following an FIA meeting on this topic.
A subject that is controversial in Formula 1, the issue of the penalty points system imposed on drivers during or after a Grand Prix sometimes remains like the famous Higgs Boson: a mystery that some would like to unravel.
Aware that these questions haunt both the spectators and participants of the discipline, as demonstrated by the recent statements from Red Bull on the discrepancy in treatment between Michael Schumacher in Valencia and Sebastian Vettel in Barcelona, the governing bodies of the premier motorsport discipline improvised a meeting on the subject. According to Derek Warwick, often present in the paddock as a driver steward, the meeting led to interesting proposals: “We had a Council in Paris that I chaired with Charlie [Whiting]. There are a few ideas that came out of the meeting with the permanent stewards that are quite interesting. Charlie will analyze all this, make recommendations via a roadmap, and present it to Jean [Todt],” he indicated to our colleagues from Autosport during the FOTA “Fans Forum” organized on Tuesday at the Williams factory.
Warwick added: « There might be some changes in the coming months or years, but I don’t yet know if they can be introduced for next season. It’s a new procedure, we weren’t supposed to have these meetings. » Among the concerns of the Briton, some sanctions, like the drive-through (mandatory passage through the pits without stopping): « There is a code, but I don’t always agree with it: a drive-through is too harsh a penalty for some incidents and too lenient for others. There’s room for adjustments. »
If he was unable to provide details on the content of the discussions that took place during the meeting, the former driver wanted to give a concrete example: There are unequal time penalties. Is a drive-through penalty in Canada, where you lose 15 seconds, equivalent to one on a circuit like Abu Dhabi, for example? In the end, all of this balances out, but I think we are always open to changes.
Derek Warwick also defends the system of rotating stewards between each Grand Prix, even though he doesn’t necessarily show solidarity regarding certain decisions: « If I look back this year, I have to say that I think some penalties were too strong or too severe. I don’t agree with some decisions, but that’s because I don’t have all the elements. In the stewards’ room we have them. We have all the angles, all the data and can produce a correct judgment. » Nevertheless, he takes the opportunity to revisit an event from two years ago, the faulty maneuver by Michael Schumacher on Rubens Barrichello during the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix when the German forced the Brazilian against the pit wall: « I think Schumacher should have been banned, but that wasn’t the stewards’ opinion. »
For the record, the commissioners do indeed have a very sophisticated race viewing system, which does not prevent controversies from arising over the legitimacy of the penalties imposed or not on drivers during the Grand Prix.
