Mercedes will face no penalty regardless of the stewards discovering some group personnel didn’t put on required protecting gear whereas attending to Lewis Hamilton’s automobile within the pits.
The stewards discovered virtually each different group had dedicated the same infraction and determined punishing all of them “wouldn’t serve a helpful function.”
The infringement occured when Hamilton got here into the pits throughout SQ2. “The stewards heard from the group consultant and reviewed video proof and decided that group personnel carried out work on automobile 44 [Hamilton’s] entrance wing whereas it was in its pit cease place throughout the dash qualifying session, and weren’t carrying the required protecting gear.”
This was in breach of F1’s laws which specify what sort of helmets the pit crew should put on, and likewise state that “the usage of acceptable eye safety is obligatory.”
“Nevertheless, as we have been analyzing the conduct of the group in relation to this infringement (which was reported to us by race management), it got here to our consideration that quite a lot of different groups had engaged in comparable work with out helmets and/or with out eye safety throughout the session both inside the pit cease place or in shut proximity to it,” the stewards famous.
“Definitely, those who have been engaged on the automobile inside the pit cease positions would even have been in breach of Article 34.13 (for instance by touching the automobile or jacking up the automobile). Certainly, these barely outdoors of their pit cease place might not been in breach of the above article however the distinction, from a security perspective (which is the seemingly function for this rule), was not apparent to us.
“Moreover, it seems to be the established observe to jack the automobile up, whereas blowers are used to chill the brakes, inside the pit cease place to deliver the automobile again into the storage. That too, learn strictly, might be in breach of the above laws. So, in these circumstances, penalising one group, the place all or practically all of the groups might probably have been in breach of this text in some kind or the opposite wouldn’t serve a helpful function.”
The stewards subsequently took no motion in opposition to Mercedes or every other group for this breach, however urged the FIA to “take into account whether or not modifications must be made to both the present practices throughout qualifying/dprint qualifying or the laws themselves.”
Advert | Change into a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Chinese language Grand Prix
Browse all 2024 Chinese language Grand Prix articles
