Time sensitive issues

Qualifying day at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka brought yet another fast-paced day of F1 news and views. Max Verstappen claimed his latest inevitable pole position and then had a message for the people who assumed Red Bull had been found out by the Singapore GP technical directive, while Mercedes were once again plunged into crisis with Lewis Hamilton airing his frustrations. Just another standard F1 2023 day, then. Here’s today’s roundup… Max Verstappen’s ‘to whom it may concern’ moment As bite backs go, Verstappen’s message to his doubters wasn’t quite on the level of Valtteri Bottas’s famous Australia 2019 radio call, but it was a juicy one nonetheless. There were more than a few who wanted to believe Red Bull had finally been found out in Singapore last weekend, but pole position by sixth tenths at Suzuka was an emphatic response. So what exactly was Max’s message to those people? “Go suck on an egg.” He went on to explain how the reaction to Red Bull’s poor … [Read more...] about Max Verstappen bites back as Mercedes crisis continues – F1 news roundup

The American badly damaged his car during a high-speed crash in qualifying on Saturday, which has forced a change of chassis. The FIA discovered, however, that the team had assembled its spare car far more than was normally allowed according to the rules – so it was in effect judged to be a third car. Williams was summoned to the stewards on Sunday morning and explained that the problem was triggered by its mechanics beginning work on making up its spare chassis as soon as it became clear it had to be done. This was in theory done before teams are allowed to start such work. Following the stewards’ hearing, the FIA accepted the explanation from Williams about what happened, but said that it was mandated for it to hand down a penalty. With the change of chassis already automatically meaning Sargeant must start from the pitlane, it was decided that a further 10-second penalty would be given. A statement from the FIA said that it was aware of there being an issue in the … [Read more...] about Sargeant handed penalty for third car rules breach ahead of F1 Japanese GP

Logan Sargeant will start today’s Japanese Grand Prix from the pit lane and is required to serve a 10-second time penalty during the race following an error by his team. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Williams failed to follow the correct procedures when it began work on a replacement chassis for Sargeant following his heavy crash in Q1 at Suzuka . Formula 1’s rules allow teams to have no more than two cars ready for using at any one time and forbid them from having completed spare available in order to control costs. They may have spare survival cells ready to be built up into replacement cars. The rules tightly define how complete these survival cells may be. The stewards found Williams broke that rule when they began work on a replacement car for Sargeant after his Saturday crash. FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer informed the stewards Williams began work on their spare chassis, number three, on Saturday night. He noted “chassis three was … [Read more...] about Sargeant to start from pits with 10-second penalty for team’s crash repair error