A number of Formula 1 bosses have suggested potential solutions of how the sport could deal with drivers who cause “red flags or yellow flags” during qualifying, with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown calling for lap-times to be deleted.
The calls for drivers to be punished for significant qualifying errors comes after suggestions that Sergio Pérez crashed on purpose during Q3 at the Monaco Grand Prix, with George Russell having also caused a red flag during Q3 at Interlagos for beaching his Mercedes.
With the Pérez incident in mind, team bosses have come forward to state that change is needed, especially if a driver has caused a ‘deliberate’ stoppage to gain an advantage.
As it stands, no rule exists to delete a lap-time from a driver who causes a stoppage, something which is seen in IndyCar.
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In the American single-seater series, a driver’s lap-time gets deleted should they cause a stoppage, with Brown wanting that exact rule to be implemented if a driver causes either a yellow or red flag during qualifying.
“I think it should be red flags or yellow flags, effectively impeding a driver from completing their lap,” Brown said.
“They do that in other forms of motorsports: you just lose your fastest lap from that session. All the drivers tend to do one lap runs [anyway] so that would penalise the driver if it was intentional or unintentional.
“Because you’ve messed up someone else’s lap, I think that’s an easy solution and it can be implemented right away.”
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has suggested a very different solution, with the Frenchman having raised whether qualifying sessions could be extended, to allow each driver to “finish their hot lap”.
“What I could say even personally is that they penalise themselves anyways,” Rossi said to media, including RacingNews365.com.
“So, I would imagine that you could perhaps extend the session by an extra lap or two, to allow for the others to finish their hot lap for instance, and the driver himself would not continue without any penalty.
“We need to have an extensive review, [but] we shouldn’t be too quick at condemning a driver, or a team.”
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Aston Martin boss Mike Krack, on the other hand, isn’t sure what the best method of approach is to tackle the issue, with the team principal believing that a lot of research needs to go into the topic first before making a final decision.
“I do not have a black and white opinion on this,” Krack explained.
“I think we need to really look case-by-case, going to sporting advisory [committee] and maybe have a look at the last 10 years where we had situations, because it’s quite quick to pre-condemn someone, when it’s was not good.”