The FIA have set a court date to hear the appeal from Audi over the classified finishing position of Yuki Tsunoda at the Italian Grand Prix. The matter will be heard between the Grand Prix weekends in Las Vegas and Qatar.
Yuki Tsunoda returned to race for the Racing Bulls in September, following an injury to Isack Hadjar which saw Liam Lawson promoted alongside Max Verstappen for three race weekends. The Japanese driver claimed a point by finishing tenth in Monza, ahead of the two Audi drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg finishing 11th and 12th respectively.
Monza Chaos: Tsunoda’s Grid Confusion
However, at the end of the formation lap, the Japanese driver got confused arriving at the grid and headed towards the 15th-place grid slot, rather than his scheduled starting place of P14. Realising his mistake, he cut across the track to arrive at his starting position, but left the Racing Bulls car at an awkward angle in his box.
Race director Rui Marques decided to send the cars around one more time to ensure all were correctly positioned for the start, but it was the lack of penalty issued to Tsunoda which incensed Audi and is the root of this hearing.
The Regulatory Battle: Article B5.9.4 Under Scrutiny
Having missed out on a point, Audi appealed the classified result based on Article B5.9.4 of the sporting regulations,arguing that there had been a breach of the start procedure by Yuki Tsunoda. The relevant regulation states: “Any driver who caused an extra formation lap, and is then able to start the, or any subsequent, extra formation lap must enter the Pit Lane at the end of the lap and must start the [session] from the end of the Pit Lane.”
“A Stop-and-Go Penalty will be imposed on any driver who fails to start the [session] from the Pit Lane.” This clearly did not happen, with Audi believing had Tsunoda served a penalty he would not have finished ahead of their drivers.
A representative from the Racing Bulls argued that the car was not in a “false start” position, because no contact patch of the front tyres was outside the grid box lines (front and side). Further, they noted that the Race Director had designated the pit walls as the extremities of the circuit and even though the car was pointing right, there was sufficient space for Yuki to move forward.
Their position was that the positioning of the car did not interfere with others and car 22 was not the “cause” of the extra formation lap. At no time was the team advised that the extra formation lap was caused by their driver.
Why the Stewards Took No Further Action
From the stewards’ explanation it appears the regulation has been badly written, given to enter the pit lane any driver would need to know they are responsible for the false start. Further, the penalty of a stop-and-go is not for causing an additional formation lap, but in fact for not entering the pit lane to make a start from there.
The Racing Bulls cited other instances where an additional formation lap had been instructed from race control, but neither driver nor team were informed that they were the cause. The stewards also observed: “The team, based on the fact that the car was positioned within its starting grid box in compliance with the regulations, had, in our determination, no reason to instruct its driver to enter and start from the Pit Lane.”
“Accordingly, irrespective of whether or not the driver directly caused the extra formation lap, the team and driver were unaware that they were being considered as the cause, therefore we determine that we are unable to impose a Stop and Go penalty in this case, and decide to take no further action.”
“We note that the Race Director acted in good faith and out of an abundance of caution in ordering an extra formation lap.We further note that the FIA might wish to consider implementing a process to advise teams and drivers if they are considered to be the cause of an extra formation lap, so that they are then able to comply with the requirements of Article B5.9.4.”
Millions on the Line: Why Audi is Pursuing the Appeal
Yet despite what appears to be an open-and-shut case, a regulation potentially in need of a rewrite and the race director not instructing the Racing Bulls their driver was the cause of the additional formation lap, Audi believe the FIA have a case to answer.
Presently Audi have collected 28 points in the constructors’ championship, just 3 points behind rivals Haas F1 and with tens of millions of dollars up for grabs for each position gained, the German-owned team presumably believe it’s worth making the appeal.
They argue that in fact Tsunoda directly caused the Race Director to instruct an extra formation lap due to his erratic grid position. Hence according to their regulations he should have been penalised and forced to start from the pit lane and therefore an error was made by race control.
Having not served the requirement to start from the pit lane, then the additional penalty of a stop-and-go should be applied. This would be converted into a 30-second time penalty as stated in the rules.
Stop-and-go penalties are reserved for serious sporting infractions — such as ignoring black-and-orange flags for driving with dangerous car damage, severe pit lane safety violations, or extreme rule breaches — because losing ~30 seconds and a chunk of track position is devastating to a driver’s race.
Questions Remain for Race Control
Clearly the FIA have dropped the ball in some fashion, given to the casual observer, Tsunoda was responsible for one of the most serious transgressions an F1 driver can commit. For race control not to recognise this in the moment leaves serious questions to be answered, which Audi will argue.
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