Wolff Discusses Force Majeure Rules After Carlos Sainz's Controversial 2023 Incident
F1Tuesday, 05 December 2023 at 10:19
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff discussed possible changes in rules following Carlos Sainz's 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix FP1 session incident.
Carlos Sainz had an incident during the Free Practice One session ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix when going over a loose manhole cover completely damaged his car.
While incidents like this are the promoter's fault because the Las Vegas Strip circuit wasn't properly prepared, Sainz still received a penalty for having to change damaged components on his car (as they were outside the allocation). Toto Wolff commented on the incident:
"What happened to Carlos was absolutely unfair and me as a racer, I'm the first one to say that he didn't deserve the outcome. I think we should look at the rules."
Martin Brundle hinted there needs to be a rule change following this unfair penalty, but he also suggested it would be "perilous" to just write a clause in the rules that would allow stewards to ignore the rules in "special cases." Wolff said:
"Force majeure as a difficult one, though, what happens with kerb strikes? You destroy your car by riding over a kerb, there's nothing we can do."
The term "force majeure" translates from French as "superior force" and is used for incidents that are outside of Drivers' control. As the Mercedes team principal states, there is multiple force majeure incidents that were not talked about.
"What if you're riding over bumps with cold tires, like what happened to Lando [Norris], and you smash it into the wall? Are people going to say this is a force majeure event?"
The point here is that there is a very thin line between what we consider a force majeure event, and it could create a lot more trouble for stewards to be able to not follow the rules.
"What if another car T-bones you and you haven't done nothing, is that force majeure? Nobody liked the situation with us as sportsmen, it wasn't just what happened to him."
The penalty sent Sainz to the middle of the grid for the race, besides qualifying in second place, and the Ferrari driver lost a lot of valuable time. Ferrari could have had second place in the Constructors' Championship if he had finished two positions higher. Wolff concluded:
"It ruined the race weekend for him that he maybe could've won. So we have to think hard about how we want to change that."
While Wolff admits the penalty was completely unfair for Sainz, he also lately explained why he was the one to call for the penalty.
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