Whilst the decision to hand Verstappen a penalty for his move on George Russell into turn five is almost universally accepted as fair, it exposed the confusion one of F1’s latest rules now invokes. It was once the remit of the race director to instruct teams to inform their driver to hand back a place after an ‘unfair’ overtake, but now this sits with the teams to make such a call, while the stewards debate endlessly the rights and wrongs of the move during the live F1 race.

The change in who makes the call was a result of the debacle in Abu Dhabi 2021, where the race director was lobbied by Mercedes and Red Bull during a late safety car to make a decision. It was felt that such undue pressure should not be brought to bear by the teams on the race director and so from 2022 onwards he was excused from making the decision to give back places and now it sits with the ever dithering stewards.

Time penalties have inherent problems as a punishment for a racing driver. If they suffer a ten second penalty during the early part of a racer, it can be mitigated and the loss caused much smaller than when this occurs towards the end of a race. Then throw into the mix a late safety car which bunches up the field and suddenly ten seconds is a big hit in terms of race position.

 

 

 

Imperfect nature of time penalties

It some ways it would be better if crimes were measured in terms of positions lost. After all Lewis Hamilton tapped the rear end of Verstappen’s car in Silverstone 2021, sending the Red Bull driver into a 51G impact at Copse Corner. Some feel Hamilton’s actions were deliberate in the opening lap of the Grand Prix, where position would define the rest of the race.

Yet Lewis was issued with a time penalty, then went on to romp home and claim victory, whilst Verstappen was being checked for potentially serious high impact injuries.

Shifting the decision on handing back places to the stewards makes things remarkably confusing for the teams and drivers. They now have to second guess the minds of the stewards who of course change from weekend to weekend. Having suffered from a delayed stewarding decision earlier this year, at the Spanish Grand Prix Red Bull clearly made a choice to mitigate the worst possible outcome that could be handed down and told their driver to relinquish his position to George Russell.

Yet as the stewards later confirmed after the chequered flag, they had no problem with Verstappen leaving the track because their view was that Russell’s car was not under control. In the end Red Bull had unnecessarily told their driver to hand back a place he was never obliged to do.

Surprising choice of new team mate for Russell

 

 

 

‘Hand back the place’, a decision for the race director

Now Christian Horner reveals his thoughts on the affair. “It was very, very marginal,” the Red Bull team boss. “It looked for all intents and purposes that it was going to be a penalty, so therefore the instruction was given to give that place back, which he was obviously upset and annoyed about because he felt that, one, he’d been left no space and, two, that George hadn’t been fully in control.

“It’s very hard for the team to try and make that call because you’re going on historical precedents,” he adds. “You’re trying to pre-empt what the stewards and the race directors are thinking. So, I think it would be beneficial to the teams, in that instance, for the race director to make that call and say you either give it back or you get a penalty, rather than having to try and second-guess what the stewards are going to think.”

In terms of the decisions made by the team as the safety car was deployed, Horner is candid about the situation the team found themselves in. “The safety car came out at probably the worst possible time in terms of our strategy, because you’re faced with the choice of, do you stay out on an eight-lap old, heavily pushed soft tyre, at which point you would get eaten up at the restart, and it looked like there would be circa ten racing laps left.

“Unfortunately, the only set of tyres that we had available was a new set of hards. Our feeling was that a new set of hards was better than an eight-lap-old, heavily degraded set of softs. You don’t want to stay on that set of tyres because you know everybody else has taken a fresh set.”

Stroll to retire from F1

 

 

 

Red Bull admit strategic error

There was a third possibility Horner does not include which was to put Verstappen on a set of softs used only in qualifying. Yet in reality these wold probably have been in a similar condition to the ones he was fitted with but the Red Bull boss accepts “with 20/20 hindsight, you’d have left him out. He would have got passed by the two McLarens. Would he have got passed by Leclerc? You never know.”

This was the risk of a three top strategy when two of the Pirelli tyres for the weekend are useless in practice, qualifying or the race. A late safety car in this scenarios leaves no new rubber choices for the driver.

The final blow to Red Bull and Max Verstappen in a weekend where their strategic bravery was left in tatters was that behind Verstappen was Charles Leclerc and George Russell both on soft tyres fitted several Laos earlier. Whilst at the restart Verstappen’s new hards were offering now grip, come the closing stages of the race they should have been quicker than the worn tyres on the Ferrari and Mercedes cars.

Russell even admitted post race he felt Verstappen would have the opportunity to come back at the pair, given the state of their tyres in the closing laps of the race. Horner points out the nonsense of codifying how each raising move should be adjudicated.

F1 farce exposed: Fans slam FIA as ‘clown show’ after botched Verstappen penalty

 

 

 

Stop making the F1 teams police themselves

“Max was obviously upset because, first of all, he’s had Leclerc take a swipe at him on the straight, and then he’s got dive-bombed at Turn 1 by George,” said Horner. “And the way that these regulations are now, it’s all about where that front axle is.

“We’ve seen so many occasions this year where penalties have been given. We’ve seen it been noted and we’ve seen it gone to the stewards. The next thing is, you’re expecting to get a penalty. So that’s why it was: ‘OK, you know what? We’re going to have to give this place up.’”

This is just not acceptable and it is the responsibility of race control to take the decisions in a measured but as a swift response to on track situations where a ruling is required. If the drivers and teams a firstly forced to make the call themselves, it is ridiculous that a much later ruling from the stewards can change the face of a Grand Prix.

 

 

 

Verstappen ‘treated harshly’ says for er F1 team boss

Like him or not, Max Verstappen is a generational talent F1 is fortunate to have in its lineup of competitors. His four consecutive F1 driver titles have not all been won in the best car, as say did most of Hamilton’s and his bid to equal Michael Schumacher’s five in a row has only been attempted by three other drivers in the history of the sport.

Without some miraculous intervention, now 49 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri it appears Verstappen will not join Schumacher with the ‘magic’ five in a row. Whilst the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix will be remembered for just one moment, this was an epic challenge taken on by Red Bull Racing, to break the mould of racing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The annual trip to Barcelona has been an illusion for over three decades, the drivers and teams go racing less than they expect to do in Monaco. With 32 wins from the front row in 35 Grand Prix held in the suburb of Montmelo, the tale of F1 racing here is told in a moment….. READ MORE