Almost half of the drivers on the starting grid took penalties before the Italian Grand Prix – and Martin Brundle thinks it is not acceptable to have such uncertainty about the formation of the grid after the qualifications.
With so many drivers penalized before the race, question marks remained over what shape the final grid would take for Sunday. To clarify what the starting order would be, there was a wait of nearly four hours before the final grid was released.
George Russell is among those who have called for a rethink of the way penalties are calculated, and Brundle, who has 158 Grands Prix to his name, didn’t mince words about how the confusion has endured.
“With nine cars choosing, or mostly forced to take penalties for new power unit components, and other penalties on top, for the second time in three races the grid did not represent the order of the qualifications. »
« This is an unacceptable situation because when fans are trackside or turning on their televisions to watch qualifying, they should reasonably expect to see the race grid forming or at least having a grid at the end. of sitting. »
And Brundle slips a tackle to this sport so technological…
« We waited several hours for the torturous and complex process of applying the sanctions. A netizen managed to calculate this simply and graphically in a few minutes. Why not F1? We need solutions here because it’s bad for the F1 image. »
Should the penalties be reviewed? According to Brundle, yes, they should not weigh directly on the pilots.
« The concept of penalties is necessary to prevent teams from launching new power units and components on their cars without limit. »
“What are the options? Simply giving each driver more power units per season, or applying an in-race penalty such as a pit lane pass to be taken at some point in the race, or giving teams financial or championship penalties in a proportionate way rather than placing the burden on the drivers, because it happens through no fault of their own. »
“A well-mixed grid can make for an interesting race watching the drivers work their way through the field, but even better is having six cars with a realistic chance of winning the race wheel-to-wheel by starting together on Grid. »
