Red Bull: Marko wants a change in certain rules
Helmut Marko indicated that changes were necessary, according to him, both for the penalties imposed during pit stops and for the noses of the cars.
The director of the Red Bull division, Helmut Marko, revisited several significant events from the start of the season, including the penalty given to Daniel Ricciardo at the Malaysian Grand Prix and the dangers of the 2014 Formula 1 noses, in an interview with the Austrian television channel Servus TV.
Pit stop failures: penalize the team and not the driver
Initially, he speaks out against the sanctions imposed on his driver, Daniel Ricciardo, following the poor pit stop during the race at the Sepang circuit, during which the improper fastening of a wheel resulted in both a 10-second stop-and-go penalty towards the end of the race, which was already compromised, and a 10-place grid penalty for the next Grand Prix, which was in Bahrain.
« Poor Daniel who did nothing wrong » he regrets. For Marko, it is towards the Red Bull structure and it alone that sanctions should be directed: « There is a constructors’ championship and a drivers’ championship: as a team, we should have points deducted, or a fine. » He continues: « In my eyes, it wasn’t even an unsafe release. When Daniel stopped, he said: « Hey, my wheel isn’t fixed » and we brought him back. There was no danger. »
As a reminder, the penalty for an unsafe release is clearly established by the sporting regulations, which state that: « If a car […] has been released in unsafe conditions during a race, the driver in question will receive a 10-place grid penalty at the next Grand Prix. However, if the car released in unsafe conditions can resume the race, a penalty provided for in Article 16.3c will also be imposed on the driver in question » (Article 23.12 c).
The nose of the single-seaters: “We must react as quickly as possible” in 2015
The other topic addressed by Helmut Marko is the nose of the race cars. Lowered compared to previous seasons, the front of F1 cars has already been subject to criticism, notably from Adrian Newey during the off-season, concerning its danger regarding the risk of one car going under another. This situation has already occurred in Australia, during the accident between Kamui Kobayashi and Felipe Massa.
« You can see that the nose is so low that you can go under another car, lift it, and flip it, » explains Marko in reference to the accident between Esteban Gutierrez and Pastor Maldonado in Bahrain. However, it seems from the footage that it is actually mostly the meshing effect between the front-left wheel and the rear-right wheel that is the cause of the Mexican’s rollovers, with the “horns” of the Lotus E22 not touching the Sauber C33, unlike its mustache which gets damaged in the collision.
As the FIA had already indicated just before the start of the season, Marko admits that such a change is not possible: « Unfortunately, we cannot change that during the season because it has to do with the chassis, but we must react as quickly as possible for next year. »
He takes the opportunity to call for a change in the look as well, with some observers not hesitating to criticize an aspect deemed unsightly: « Maybe we can do something, at the same time, for the aesthetics of those noses. »
