The drivers want clarifications

Formula 1 drivers seem ready to ask race director Charlie Whiting for clarifications on driving standards during the Friday evening briefing in Abu Dhabi following a series of incidents at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

While most of the attention remains on the first-round collision between Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil, since both drivers revisited the incident in public during the official FIA press conference in Abu Dhabi this Thursday, concerns have emerged about other racing incidents.

The Williams driver, Nico Rosberg, stated that he would seek clarification from Whiting on what is acceptable or not these days. The young German thinks that drivers are too aggressive when it comes to defending a position.

His comments come after the separate collisions between Mark Webber and Kimi Räikkönen, Rubens Barrichello and Lewis Hamilton, and Kamui Kobayashi and Kazuki Nakajima, all of which occurred under the same circumstances. The driver defending his position was cutting in front of or even onto the overtaking driver.

« Barrichello, Webber and Kobayashi did exactly the same thing, » said Rosberg. « With Webber, Räikkönen lost his front wing, with Kobayashi, Nakajima went out, but it could have been much worse. You can really hurt yourself as well as the track marshals and others in this kind of accident. With Barrichello, Lewis touched the back of his tire. It was the third time, and that’s not allowed. »

Michael Schumacher was the one who initiated this kind of maneuver, like at Spa [in 2000], when Mika Hakkinen tried to overtake him and Michael pushed him off the track. When the guy behind makes a decision [to overtake] and the guy in front moves on him, it’s very dangerous. You can’t do that. I remember it was the first time I thought it was a dangerous situation, so it must be examined and clarified, from my point of view. I would mention it at the drivers’ briefing.

I’m not saying that someone did something wrong [in Brazil], because there have been no details on this matter, but the pilots’ perspective must be taken into account and we think it’s very dangerous. Something needs to change.

The double world champion, Fernando Alonso, who was an innocent victim of the incident between Trulli and Sutil in Brazil, agrees with Nico Rosberg.

“I saw everything, more or less, from the second or third row, because there were a few cars between us,” he said. “But I think tomorrow in the drivers’ briefing, we will talk about it a bit more in depth.”