Why Verstappen received a strange one-place penalty

Following the incident with George Russell during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, Max Verstappen lost the benefit of his pole position to the Briton. The latter, arriving at high speed on the Dutchman in full trajectory in the fast section during Q3, was surprised by his slowness and had to make an avoidance maneuver.

After this incident and the announcement of an investigation by the stewards, observers and fans were divided into two camps: those who thought Verstappen would receive a three-place penalty for genuine embarrassment and those who 'expected, given that the incident had taken place between two drivers in a “slow lap”, that there would be nothing.

Ultimately, it was roughly between these two outcomes that the commissioners' decision came down with the astonishing penalty of a single place back on the starting grid. The commissioners considered that the quadruple world champion was guilty of having driven “unnecessarily [lentement]”however the fact that Russell was not in a flying lap was seen as a mitigating circumstance.

So why did the commissioners choose a single penalty position? Quite simply because the regulations completely allow them to do so. Indeed, article 37.4 of the Formula 1 sporting regulations, which concerns practice sessions (free and qualifying), states that: “In the event of a driving infraction during a free practice, qualifying or sprint qualifying session, the stewards may delete a driver's time (or lap times) or cause him to lose the number of places on the grid that they consider appropriate.

So, even if the usual thing is to see penalties of three or five places depending on the type of infraction, which is considered a sort of jurisprudence, the commissioners in reality have complete latitude to lower or increase the number. standard” of recoil positions if they deem it necessary.

It should also be noted that the penalty of a single place, even if it is extremely rare, is not completely new. In 2016, at the German Grand Prix, Nico Hülkenberg suffered. However, the incident in question concerned an error made by Force India, its team at the time, which had used in qualifying a set of tires which should have been returned to Pirelli after free practice.

In 2015, at the Malaysian GP, ​​Romain Grosjean, then Haas driver, was penalized two positions on the grid for overtaking cars leaving the pits in qualifying, without being authorized to do so.