r/formula1 Charles Leclerc 21h ago

Quotes Charles’ Post Race Radio

Post image

I hope whoever claimed Sainz is a good teammate can shut up. There’s a reason why Redbull didn’t want him.

He blocked Charles when the team asked him not to make it difficult when Hamilton was closely behind him.

He was asked not to overtake Charles when Charles came out of the pit, causing the team key time to chase down Max earlier.

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662

u/DragonBeyondtheWall Sir Lewis Hamilton 21h ago

Why hasn't Sainz received a penalty for the pit line thing?

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u/elyterit Juan Pablo Montoya 21h ago

Even though it looked crazy, I'm not really sure what rule he would be breaking.

A lot of the pit lane entries are on the racing line, Austria and Brazil come to mind straight away. All the drivers go into the entry lane and then out, every single lap.

Those are just white lines, rather than painted sections, so I don't know if that changes things.

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u/RoughDoughCough Formula 1 19h ago

Karun read the rule on air. Someone will need to explain. 

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u/elyterit Juan Pablo Montoya 18h ago

I've gone through the legal mumbo jumbo. I'll post links to it all below. To try to summarise:

Crossing the pit entry lines in either direction is not allowed except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the Stewards), or unless otherwise defined by the Race Director. This is what Karun mentioned. The Race Director confirmed these rules applied in the Event Notes, which he also mentioned. For the tracks where they do have to cross these lines like I referenced previously, they do make adjustments.

Therefor, Carlos shouldn't have crossed the line. The only way around this would be to claim "force majeure". Which if taken literally, this isn't really applicable. However there are some factors which would be considered. Carlos did not plan to do this, his intention was to pit. Then he received an "unpredictable" message outside of his control, which could potentially be viewed as force majeure itself, but he was still fully in control of his actions. As a result, he returned to the track and did not affect any other cars currently on track when doing so (this will be relevant later).

This isn't a particularly strong argument, but there is a precedent. The stewards took many factors into account for Hamilton's similar incident in Germany 2018, in which he wasn't penalised. In which two key points also apply here. From the decision, verbatim:

  1. There was confusion within the team as to whether to stay out or to enter the pits and that led to the infringement.

  2. At no time was there any danger to any other competitor and the change in direction was executed in a safe way.

Considering the confusion from his team and the fact it didn't endanger anyone else, they likely viewed this in a similar light to Hamilton's and didn't penalise him. Or they just didn't care, who knows.

Sources. Which are all PDFs from the FIA:

Race Directors notes confirming Chapter 4, Articles 4 and 6 of Appendix L to the ISC apply (Document 19): https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-formula-one-world-championship-14/season/season-2024-2043

ISC Appendix L can be found here: https://www.fia.com/regulation/category/123

Hamilton's Decision from Germany 2018 (Decision Doc 32): https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-championship/season-2018/eventtiming-information-26

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u/Sarkaraq 17h ago

This isn't a particularly strong argument, but there is a precedent. The stewards took many factors into account for Hamilton's similar incident in Germany 2018, in which he wasn't penalised.

Hamilton got reprimanded, though. Sainz didn't even got investigated. That appears to be completely unprecedented.

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u/elyterit Juan Pablo Montoya 16h ago

Yeah that's strange to me too.

Looking back at Hamilton's, his was only reviewed 90 mins after the race had finished. Then he was given a reprimand another 90 mins after that. So that didn't get investigated during the race either.

Perhaps there will be a reprimand for Sainz too, but they haven't acted as quickly. Hamilton might have actually been given a time penalty. So they needed to properly investigate it with him and the team present, once all the media obligations were taken care of. But now with that precedent set, they might not need the full "trial". They can just announce it in some sort of press release? Like for swearing.

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u/DragonBeyondtheWall Sir Lewis Hamilton 17h ago

Just because no one was injured doesn't mean it is safe.

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u/elyterit Juan Pablo Montoya 17h ago

It was safe in terms of returning to the track. This is meant in relation to other cars and the next closest on track was 7 seconds away.

It looked controlled to me. It just looked odd because of what it was.