When it emerged that Sergio Perez allegedly crashed on purpose during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, fresh calls emerged for F1 drivers to be penalised for causing red flags during qualifying. Carlos Sainz alluded to how 'deliberate' crashes in F1 are more common than people think, but added that more action should be taken to stop drivers from abusing the rules. F1 does not currently have any explicit sanctions for drivers causing yellow or red flags during a qualifying session, which may result in others having to back out of their push laps. Many have suggested adopting a rule where the driver that caused the red flag gets their time deleted, a regulation also seen in other championships such as IndyCar.
Could F1 add 'extra time' to sessions?
McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes the simple rule adopted by IndyCar could be an "easy solution" that can be "implemented right away." "I think it should be red flags or yellow flags, effectively impeding a driver from completing their lap. "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." The possibility of F1 adding in an 'extra time' rule that gives drivers a chance to complete their fast laps, could also be discussed, according to Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi. "What I could say even personally is that they penalise themselves anyways," he 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." Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack echoed the view that it could be tough to penalise a driver without proving that they had crashed deliberately. He added: "I do not have a black and white opinion on this. 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."
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