Formula 1 Race Director Michael Masi has dismissed complaints from drivers over the structure of the penalty points system.
Several drivers were handed penalty points for various incidents in Austria, with Sergio Perez receiving four for his two moments battling Charles Leclerc.
That brought Perez up to eight, four away from a potential one-event suspension, while McLaren’s Lando Norris is up to 10 – albeit two of those will be removed prior to the next track activity.
A frustrated Norris queried why he was handed penalty points “for someone going into the gravel” and outlined that they should only be issued for actions that are “purely dangerous.”
Norris added that “if you get a ban for little things it’s stupid in my opinion” and “not what Formula 1 should be.”
Norris’ viewpoint was backed up by race winner Max Verstappen.
“So if you would have six of these incidents, right, if you get that six… I don’t think you deserve a ban for what he did or whatever,” he said.
“There’s stuff… I’ve said it before, myself two years ago, that we should look into that but let’s see.”
Masi, though, outlined that teams had the opportunity to address the system but chose not to do so.
“To be fair, it’s a penalty point system that exists, it’s been there all the way through, no different to drivers on the road in the countries that have the maximum number of points that they have to abide by,” he said post-race.
“They have to adjust driving style and stuff accordingly.
“I don’t think they’re harsh, it was discussed late last year, and it’s funny because it affects different drivers and teams in different ways.
“The consensus was at the end of last year, involving teams, the FIA and F1 that there shouldn’t be a change for this year. It’s not something that we would ever change mid-year.
“The penalty scale is something the teams all agree upon and actually have input to at the start of the year. It’s what the stewards use.”
No driver has yet reached 12 points within a 12-month period since the system was introduced in 2014.
I thought it had been agreed with the stewards to stop handing out penalties for minor contacts with no damage to either party. If one driver attempts to go round the outside of another, at the exit of a corner when that driver is already full committed to his line, what is that driver expected to do – order a skyhook? It is going to end up with less scrupulous drivers deliberately forcing another driver into committing a penalty.
Masi is right, The rules & penalties have been around for some time.
But perhaps, like a few other rules maybe the interpretation has changed subtly under the new Masi régime? After all there seems tobe a rise in such incidents almost to the zero tolerance days a few years back.
What happened to the zero safety consequences/let them race? Its been raised several times in the Driver Briefing, but as Masi says, despite his rule/interpretation changes, no mid season changes!!
If the only review allowed is out of season, OK, but why only FIA/F1/Teams involved, no GPDA!!
There are two issues here which are better considered separately:
1. Is there support for penalties for undisputed but minor incidents
2. The impact of penalties for infractions which the significant majority of onlookers struggle to see as having been infractions at all.
At least in the first case one can argue that drivers have the choice to avoid such incidents, but in the second case that is much more difficult. Norris-Perez seemed an exemplary case of the latter and thus placed the adjudicators absolutely at odds with the spirit & spectacle of the race.
My own preference would be for penalties to be reserved for deliberate or egregiously irresponsible rule-breaking acts which conferred advantage or which disadvantaged another driver – that would lead to far fewer issues per (1) above but would not be proof against apparently absurd decisions per (2), where an act may have been deliberate and advantageous but where it seems disputable whether it broke any rule at all.
Michael masi about the verstappin and Hamilton incident you are wrong your body language says it was wrong. How much are you being paid to go with no action. It will co e back and bite you