F1 and FIA urged to impose harsher crash punishments

Ex-Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer has called on the FIA to implement harsher penalties when dealing with in-race clashes.

The subject has been hot in recent weeks after Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was handed a duo of five-second time penalties for colliding with rivals.

In Singapore, he came together with Alexander Albon late on, while Japan saw the Mexican collide with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.

Perez was deemed the guilty party in both incidents, but was only issued five-second punishments in the clashes despite heavily impacting his rivals’ races.

Palmer, who competed for Renault in 2016 and 2017, believes that the FIA should consider stronger punishments for such incidents.

“The five-second penalty definitely serves a purpose but there’s a growing feeling that it’s inadequate to punish drivers who are 100% to blame for an incident that grossly affects a rival,” he wrote in a column for F1.com.

“I’m in this camp too. There are many incidents, like the Hamilton and Perez one in the Spa Sprint, when you can argue a case for it being a racing incident or for one driver who is slightly more to blame.

“But in incidents like we’ve seen in Singapore and Japan, I think it’s hard to provide any defence for Perez.

“Moving forwards, I think harsher punishments should and probably will be brought in,”

“A five-second penalty can be costly, but for the big teams it’s also too easy to overcome – as Hamilton also showed in Monza – while the minnows on the receiving end are left licking their wounds.”

Palmer backs Perez to recover

Perez is hunting to finish the year second in the Drivers’ Championship, which would see Red Bull take its first-ever 1-2 finish across a season.

Palmer believes that the week off before the next round in Qatar provides Perez the chance to regroup himself ahead of the final stretch of races.

“We’ve seen some great moments from Perez in wheel-to-wheel fighting, whether it was helping out his team-mate in 2021 in battles with Hamilton, winning his first Grand Prix from the back of the field in Sakhir back in 2020, or even charging back for some results in races this season, such as at Melbourne,” he said.

“I’m sure a week off now will do Checo some good to regroup before his Qatar clean slate, where he needs to dig in to ensure he cements his second place in the championship.”