2021 F1

Verstappen and Bottas handed grid penalty for Qatar GP

Published

2 months ago

November 21, 2021

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Verstappen and Bottas handed grid penalty for Qatar GP

F1 Title leader Max Verstappen has been received a five-place grid penalty for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix for breach double-waved yellow flags rules in qualifying Q3.

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has also been hits three-place grid penalties as they ignored single yellow flags.
Carlos Sainz, the third driver under investigation, was escaped by the stewards after it was revealed that the Ferrari ace had reduced his speed upon arriving on the scene where Gasly was stranded.

The Yellow flag incident happen at the end of that Q3 lap, the victimised drivers were unable reduce the speed, Gasly parked his car beside the end of sector 3, who had broken his front wing on a kerb and punctured his front left tyre.

The penalties for Verstappen and Bottas will lift Gasly, who originally qualified fourth, to the front row of the grid for today’s race.

After qualifying second, Verstappen will now drop to seventh.

A detailed stewards’ report read: “The stewards note the representations of the driver and team representative for mitigation of penalty in view of the lack of display of the yellow light panels, no dash warning lights and no audio signal to the driver.

“Whilst having sympathy for this request, the stewards have taken into account the following:

1. Article 27.1 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations states that the driver must drive the car alone and unaided.

2. Appendix H of the Code states that flags and lights have the same meaning (and hence a flag signal must be complied with).

3. Article 27.2 requires the driver to observe the International Sporting Code at all times. That code, in Appendix H places the onus of responsibility of complying with flag signals clearly on the driver, so notwithstanding the fact the team argued that the turning off of the yellow sector on the FIA marshalling system some 34 seconds prior to the driver reaching the yellow flag, signified that it was “play on”, it was the driver’s responsibility to take the appropriate action when entering what was a double yellow flag area.

4. The stewards examined the audio communications between the team and the driver and at no time did the team indicate to the driver the situation referred to in 3. above.

5. The driver acknowledged his awareness of the presence of Car 10 on the right side of the track. Having seen a disabled car, it is reasonable to expect, as was the case of the driver of Car 55, that there was a potential danger and that a yellow-flag situation probably existed and therefore to take the appropriate action (i.e. to reduce speed).

6. The penalty for the driver of Car 44 in Austria 2020 resulted in a grid penalty of 3 positions which is the usual penalty for breaching a single flag situation, and the penalty for the driver of Car 5 in Bahrain 2021 which resulted in a grid penalty of 5 positions which is the usual penalty for breaching a double-flag situation.”

2021 F1

Masi out of organisation chart, FIA ‘set deadline for Abu Dhabi investigation’

Published

6 days ago

January 12, 2022

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FIA Formula 1 Race Director Michael Masi has been utterly criticised following his 2021 F1 final lap decisions, which was decided the driver’s championship. Masi’s strange safety car call benefitted to Max Verstappen who beaten Lewis Hamilton to F1 title.

Meanwhile, the new FIA Organisation Chart has been released for the month of January 2022, and Masi is absent on the list under the single-seater section, this is first organisation chart after newly elected FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who replaced Jean Todt.

Initially Mercedes protested the results following the 2021 F1 season finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Silver Arrows withdrew its appeal after the FIA dedicated to launching an “analysis and clarification exercise”.

Also, a ‘senior source’ said that Mercedes had a deal agreeing to drop their appeal as long as Masi and Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s head of single-seater technical matters, were fired.

Masi has served as the race director for F1 since March 2019 when predecessor Charlie Whiting died just days before that year’s F1 season was due to start.

Recently Sky sports reported that, FIA confirms that Abu Dhabi Grand Prix investigation will complete in early February. Even as Mercedes still claiming that Masi contravened FIA regulations in doing so. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff expressed that Hamilton being “disillusioned” after he was “robbed” of a record-breaking eighth title. The Seven-time F1 world champion has not communicated publicly or on social media in a month.

Sky Sports F1 reporter Slater said that: “They (Mercedes) want to find out what the FIA decide should be the fall-out from what went on over those final laps in Abu Dhabi where, as far as they are concerned, Lewis Hamilton lost an eighth World title because of a misreading of the rules, chiefly by race director Michael Masi.

“I can report that three weeks is how long the FIA have set themselves to deal with this matter. Work only began in earnest on it on Monday [January 10], that’s to say this FIA commission started to interview those involved.

“This is going to go on. The FIA have told me they will not be dragging this out. It was a concern of Mercedes that it would take so long that it would jeopardise Lewis Hamilton’s pre-season, if he didn’t have these findings well in advance and could take a decision about 2022.

“They also say to me that the [internal] investigation will be thorough, objective and transparent as well. This should be done by February 3rd, at which point the FIA have a [World] Motor Sport Council meeting and hopefully they expect to announce those findings by then.”

2021 F1

Revealed: Top 10 drivers of 2021 F1 voted by team bosses

Published

3 weeks ago

December 27, 2021

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leader Lewis Hamilton overtaken by Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen beaten Lewis Hamilton to clinch 2021 Formula 1 world title in the much-debated Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Also, the Dutchman has been elected as the best driver in the 2021 F1 by team principals.

The same F1 championship points system applied in this voting procedure, 25 for the top driver down to one for 10th in each list.

Verstappen who was made 10 race victory and 18 total podiums in this 23-race long season, awarded as best driver position – 21 points clear of Hamilton.

McLaren youngster Lando Norris received 110 points, who made 10 successive points finish. The Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc received fourth and fifth position respectively.

Double-time F1 world champion, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was voted the sixth best driver of 2021, with Pierre Gasly a fine seventh for AlphaTauri.

Top 10 drivers of 2021 F1

POSITION	DRIVER	SCORE
1	Max Verstappen	213
2	Lewis Hamilton	192
3	Lando Norris	110
4	Carlos Sainz	85
5	Charles Leclerc	70
6	Fernando Alonso	69
7	Pierre Gasly	64
8	George Russell	44
9	Valtteri Bottas	43
10	Esteban Ocon	41

2021 F1

Revealed: F1 2021 driver crash damage costs list

Published

3 weeks ago

December 26, 2021

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TOB-F1-Mick-Schumacher-v2-1

2021 Formula One world championship witnessed most existing title battle in the sports history between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Also, the battle concluded with huge controversy and Verstappen cliched his first F1 world title.

F1 team’s spending huge amount of money for championship points, while the crash damage cost is a biggest challenge for every team.

Hass F1 is the only team completing 2021 Championship with zero point, also their speedy Mick Schumacher in top of the list of the crash damage cost during the 2021 season. The report Schumacher’s crashes have cost Team Haas 4,212,500 Euros.

The Sun Research confirm that Mick took eight new front wings and nine new sets of suspension following F1 crash damage across the season which had 22-races in total.

Ferrari ace Charles LeClerc who cost his car 4,046,000 Euros during the entire season. 2021 F1 World Champion Max Verstappen is third on the list costing his team 3,889,000 euros.

F1 2021 driver crash costs in Euros (Source: Sky Germany)

Pos	Driver	Team	Costs in Euros
1	Mick Schumacher	Haas	4,212,500
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	4,046,000
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	3,889,000
4	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	3,116,500
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	2,713,500
6	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	2,686,000
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	2,606,500
8	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	2,468,000
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1,950,000
10	George Russell	Williams	1,845,000
11	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1,756,000
12	Lando Norris	McLaren	1,453,000
13	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1,235,000
14	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1,113,000
15	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	939,000
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	854,000
17	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	713,000
18	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	660,000
19	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	315,000
20	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	280,000