F1 driver discontent as racing rules dominate Mexico City GP build up

Following Lando Norris and Max Verstappen’s controversial clash at the United States Grand Prix, F1's racing rules dominated the agenda in the Mexico City paddock on media day.

The subject of F1’s racing guidelines proved to be a source of frustration for many drivers as they spoke to media including Crash.net on Thursday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Calls for ‘common sense’

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc acknowledged it is a “very complex subject” but urged “common sense” to be applied.

“It’s a very, very complex subject, to be completely honest,” he said. “I don't have the right answer here. I think common sense needs to be applied in certain situations.

“There will never be enough rules for every specific situation there on track. And sometimes you have just got to have someone that has done that since many, many years, look at the situation and be honest and deal with it, with the specific situation you have in front of your eyes.

“There will never be one rule that will define exactly the way we shall race, I think.”

‘Expecting us to drive like machines’

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda expressed his frustration at the way F1 is currently policed.

“I feel like they’re expecting us to drive like machines, like AI, trying to follow every driving rule or whatever,” Tsunoda said.

“In the end, we’re doing racing. That’s why people look at it, battling between drivers is passion. We’re trying to fight each other with passion. If they remove that, it’s just going to be like AI fighting, like the one in Abu Dhabi [A2RL] It’s better to watch that.

“For sure it’s hard, it’s been a topic in motorsport for years. But hopefully one day we can be aligned closer.”

The case for permanent stewards

Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell called for the introduction of a permanent set of stewards.

“As a sport, we do need to level up on all areas,” said seven-time world champion Hamilton.

“We look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example. And I'm sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.

“I mean I’ve experienced it many times with Max…you shouldn't be able to launch the car on the inside and go off and still hold the position.

“So, we need to level up a bit.”

Teammate Russell concurred, adding: “At the end of the day, the stewards are doing the best job they can. They’re trying their hardest, and they do have a set of guidelines which they follow.

“Maybe we need, we’ve spoken about consistency in the past, the only way you can have consistency is if you have the same stewards at every single race weekend. And at the moment, they are very experienced, but they are here as almost volunteers.

“It is not a professionally paid job, and if you look at football as an example, even though there is still controversy, a referee, they are professionals and that is their full-time job. That is where they make their income. As the sport we are at the moment, that’s probably the direction we should be heading.”

However, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez countered: “I think with 24 races, there is no steward in the world that will be up for the job [permanently] first of all.

“And secondly, I think it's just a very difficult one because sometimes at the end of the day, the stewards, the two stewards you have can have a different opinion.

"So you always feel like the decision works against you. What goes around comes around. So it's always very difficult in these things to have the best decisions. I think ultimately it's best not to get in trouble.”

Could circuit changes help?

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz believes circuit changes could help improve the issue.

“I think we can keep [talking] about guidelines, but for me until circuits don’t also give us a hand it will be very difficult to erase the problem,” Sainz said.

“I think if you put a gravel trap at the exit of Turn 12 [in Austin], Lando doesn’t think about braking so late and releasing the brake and [isn’t] happy to overtake around the outside because he will lose two seconds and get dirt on the tyres by going round the outside. And Max will think twice about braking so late, risking going in the gravel himself.

“So if you think about it the solution might be solved itself by circuit standards or circuit modifications, and we keep going around in circles with guidelines that might be easier to solve with certain slight changes to the track, which some tracks have already performed.”

Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director Russell said: “If we take Austria last year as an example, you had 300 track limit problems. They put gravel in, and there’s no problems.

“If you put gravel in on that corner, Max doesn’t go off and overtake, and Max doesn’t brake that late and go off as well. I think we need to tackle the root cause.”

Williams’ Alex Albon pointed out how certain circuits never face such controversies.

"You could argue [about] every single overtake, every single defence, every single moment on the circuit but we don’t have these problems when we go to Singapore, we don’t have these problems when we go to Monaco, we don’t have these problems anywhere else we go to. We know that there’s extra track, it’s very easy in both ways,” he explained.

"You can always squeeze a driver off and claim it's your corner. Likewise you can hang it around the outside and claim the person has squeezed you off. It’s what we learnt to do as drivers since we were kids, we know how to play the game and in some ways we know how complicated it is for the FIA to say who is at fault in many ways.”

‘One rule which needs to be changed’

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who was punished at COTA for passing Albon off-track, stated: “I think there's one rule which needs to be changed.

“It’s that front axle at the apex, whoever has got their front axle first at the apex has got the priority, but then how much of a car control you got at that point? Otherwise ultimately you're just going to end up having situations where you can just divebomb, not committing to the corner, just to make sure you’ve got your front axle at the apex.

“Even if you can't make the corner that's going to be your corner. But then you might create other problems that you end up having all cars off the racetrack. And whoever gets the priority doesn't get penalised etc.

“I just think that specific rule, the way it's written, I get it. That's the way it is. And at the moment, we've got to respect it. But moving forward, this needs a change to allow us to have more fairness in the way we fight.”

Sainz conceded it “changes a bit of the way we go racing”.

“It means the guy defending and on the inside can brake as late as you want and you can fake that fact that you’re trying to hit the apex when you’re maybe not,” he continued.

“So that’s exactly one of the main points that we have to discuss. I thought after Brazil 2021, when Max ran Lewis off the road and missed the corner and stayed ahead that was almost quite clear that you have to stay within the track limits when you are defending.”