Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, Red Bull Ring, 2021

Analysis: The “unfair” decision to penalise one driver when many were at fault

2021 Austrian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

When FIA race director Michael Masi informed teams that race control would pay close attention for any drivers deemed driving “unnecessarily slowly” through turns nine and ten during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, the intention was to avoid the very scenario that unfolded during the final moments of Q2.

Fortunately, the sport avoided a potentially disastrous accident. But Fernando Alonso said his weekend “is over” after he was held up by Sebastian Vettel into turn ten on his final flying lap, forcing him to back out and ruining his chances of progression, dooming him to 14th on the grid

Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jnr were all investigated for failing to follow the new rules, but only the Aston Martin driver was punished.

What happened at the end of Q2

Trains of cars queuing in the final sector before starting a lap has become a common sight in F1 qualifying sessions in recent years. While the temptation of gaining a tow from a rival can be strong – especially around a high-speed circuit such as the Red Bull Ring – the impact of dirty air on modern aerodynamics can destroy a qualifying lap.

In the final minutes of Q2, Alonso was the first driver on circuit to begin his final flying lap, with Pierre Gasly, Antonio Giovinazzi and Yuki Tsunoda spaced evenly behind the Alpine driver.

Traffic in the final sector was a problem for many
As Alonso began his timed lap, a large queue was forming in the left-hand turn seven. Charles Leclerc led a group of cars including Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.

While Vettel had begun his out-lap well ahead of a number of rivals, he was passed by Norris, Stroll and Ricciardo before reaching turn nine. Vettel’s attempts to leave a gap to Ricciardo before turn nine were interrupted when three Mercedes-powered cars – Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Valtteri Bottas, all passed Vettel and Perez to join the queue built up before turn nine ahead of them.

With Perez also passing Vettel, the Aston Martin driver became the last car in the queue to begin his final lap. But by this stage there were only 20 seconds remaining in the session and Alonso’s Alpine was now closing quickly on Vettel on his hot lap.

By the time Vettel accelerated on the approach to turn ten, Alonso was rounding turn nine at full speed, only to find Vettel’s Aston Martin in the braking zone for the final corner. While Perez was able to cross the timing line to begin his lap with only one second remaining, Vettel received the chequered flag and was forced to abandon his final attempt.

Alonso was furious as, having set two personal best sector times up to that point, he was forced to back off and was therefore eliminated from qualifying in 14th.

Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, Red Bull Ring, 2021
Vettel was given a three-place grid penalty
“What the fuck was that?,” the Alpine driver raged over his radio, gesticulating his disgust at Vettel, who held his hands up apologetically in response. Despite having failed to start his final attempt, Vettel still progressed comfortably through to Q3, eventually securing a provisional grid slot of eighth.

What the drivers say

Alonso placed the blame at the feet of the Aston Martin engineers, rather than Vettel himself – but believed they were not the only ones guilty of defying the race director’s warnings.

“I don’t think that is his fault because, honestly, when we are driving in turn nine, turn ten, we rely completely on our engineers and also on the radio, and he didn’t have free track in front of him,” said Alonso.

“The nature of the circuit and the way that people were slowing down in turns nine and ten – which are written in the notes of the grand prix that you cannot do it – is the biggest topic, probably. I guess they will not penalise ten or 12 cars, which is the only way that could change our weekend. So it is an unfortunate situation and an unlucky situation.”

Bottas, who was investigated for driving too slowly into the entrance of turn nine, passed Perez and Vettel on the approach to the corner. He believes the so-called ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between drivers not to cut the queue at the end of out-laps is not being consistently honoured.

“I think that gentlemen’s agreement, it sometimes feels like it’s there, sometimes not,” Bottas said.

“Normally, by the time you get to the last corner, then people kind of respect it, I feel. But there’s so many different cars doing different type of out-laps. Some cars, they need a bit faster out-lap.”

Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Red Bull Ring, 2021
Report: FIA’s reluctance to enforce F1’s rules is “sad” – Alonso
Nikita Mazepin – who drew the ire of some on his debut for jumping the queue in qualifying in Bahrain and promptly spinning off at turn one – highlighted the hypocrisy he saw in the Q2 blocking debacle.

“First of all, I was made a very easy target in Bahrain qualifying and everyone’s made a big deal out of it at the time when I didn’t know very much about the qualifying myself in Formula 1 – it was my first ever one,” Mazepin said.

“Yesterday in the driver’s briefing, our race director has made new rules saying that you have to make your track position in turn eight and you’re not allowed to pack up turns nine and ten, which means that you have to keep up the speed into those two corners. And what I’ve seen happened in Q2… is the exact opposite. And I think every driver is human. They can get caught out and they’ve been caught out. Everyone just needs to apply the same rules to each other and then it will be a happy place.”

What the stewards say

Almost immediately after Alonso was seen to be blocked by Vettel from his onboard camera live on the world feed, the stewards announced they would investigate the incident after qualifying.

While it was of little surprise when Vettel was later handed a three-place grid penalty for the incident, what was more curious was the stewards’ reasoning for absolving Bottas and Sainz of appearing to breach Masi’s directions.

“When Alonso approached the last two corners (nine and ten), there was still a queue of three cars preparing for their final qualifying,” the stewards explained in their decision. “Vettel was the last car in this line and impeded Alonso and as a result, Alonso had to abort his final qualifying lap.”

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2021
Bottas and Sainz were investigated but not punished
With no mention of the race director’s warnings about driving too slowly through the penultimate corners, Vettel’s offence was purely that of impeding a rival – the same Yuki Tsunoda was deemed guilty of during qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix a week prior.

Bottas and Sainz, however, were both cleared of driving unnecessarily slowly in the final corners, with the stewards offering the same explanation for both drivers:

“At the end of Q2 [Sainz and Bottas] slowed down at the entry of turn nine to create a gap for [their] final lap. This is contrary to the race director’s event notes 24.2a.

“However, given the situation that many drivers ended up queuing at this part of the circuit, the stewards determine that too many drivers contributed to the situation and therefore the driver concerned is not fully to blame.”

Onboard footage from both Bottas and Sainz reveals the pair both hovered at the apex of turn nine at a greatly reduced pace before eventually accelerating up to speed. This appears, on paper, to directly convene Michael Masi’s instructions not to create gaps “between the entry of turn nine” and the final corner.

Beyond this, Stroll, Ricciardo, Hamilton, Russell and Bottas all appear to be driving at a reduced speed around the apex of turn nine before their final laps in Q2, with Perez only unable to go faster as he was sitting under the rear wing of Bottas’s Mercedes.

Why Bottas and Sainz drew the attention of the stewards and not their rivals also, is unclear. If the pair were excused for going too slowly due to the cars around then, then is Vettel not a victim of the same set of circumstances?

Bottas and Perez passed Vettel approaching the final corners
Finally, there is the matter of the gap that Perez and Vettel built up on the run through turn eight to back themselves up from the pack ahead. If the pair were trying to ensure that they would be up to speed by the entry of turn nine – as the new rules obliged them to – then their efforts were frustrated by the trio of Hamilton, Russell and Bottas all jumping ahead of them in the queue, leaving them with hardly any more time and space to give themselves a gap to start a clean lap.

Vettel’s efforts to adhere to the new rules therefore saw him ultimately fall foul of another. Aston Martin CEO Otmar Szafnauer was unimpressed.

“It wasn’t just a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’, it was written in the race director’s notes for the weekend,” Szafnauer pointed out, “so it’s part of the local rules that you had to make space prior to turn nine and not in the middle of it or the entry of it.

“The others didn’t do that, Seb did. And because he follows the rules, he’s the one that gets called to the stewards. So it’s a bit unfair. I must say it was unfair on Fernando too, he was on a quick lap and Seb had nowhere to go.”

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Austrian Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Austrian Grand Prix articles

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

55 comments on “Analysis: The “unfair” decision to penalise one driver when many were at fault”

  1. An unnecessary mess.

    1. But a big chunk of blame rests on inconsistent stewarding (to the race instructions).
      They had to penalise Vettel as his position on track was dangerous towards Alonso.
      But they should also have penalised those drivers who did not adhere to Masi’s instructions (even if that would’ve been 13 more drivers).

      1. I totally agree with you.

  2. This is a prime example of why F1 is becoming increasingly difficult to follow because of a lack of consistency and timeliness in its stewarding. There have always been issues with this where race decisions are made hours after the finish line, or penalties are handed down practically at the end of the day. Yes the rule book is long and complicated. Yes there are only 3 or 4 stewards to review all the incidents. Yes they aren’t the same people race to race. All of these things can contribute.

    But in times gone by (thinking of various penalties for not slowing down for flags like Japan in 09 or 10?) there was something to point to which could show driver x had breached a rule whereas driver y didn’t. In this case, there’s a clear breach of a specific rule by multiple drivers but only one got a penalty. I’m not sure how the stewards or the race director justifies that with a shrug, as appears to be the case.

    Much like the track limits issues, either there’s a rule or there isn’t. All fans want is for enforcement to be consistent.

    1. Lopes da Silva
      4th July 2021, 10:06

      Couln’t agree more.
      I can’t explain this situation to a 10 year old. Makes no sense.

      Actually, I can’t understand it myself – I’m not interested in understanding it. To me it’s just “another rules mess, and in qualifying, as usual, because the qualifying is a hybrid between sport and gimmick.”

      A 8 year old laughed at will of Monza 2019 qualifying, but he didn’t understand it either.

    2. They did same to Mazepin in Spain. So it’s fair. Rules could be changed, but between seasons. During the season everyone should be treated equal.

  3. I am in two minds about these penalties. On the one hand, I have always believed that finding enough space for a clear lap is part of the challenge of qualifying, and that “impeding” should only be penalised if it is reckless or deliberate.

    On the other hand, the rule as it stands has been in place for ages, so there is no real excuse for getting in another driver’s way – both the engineers and the driver themselves should be alive to the possibility that another driver might be approaching on a fast lap, and prepared to react accordingly.

    I also think, when qualifying elimination is concerned, decisions need to be made much more quickly. It was obvious to everyone that Vettel was going to get a penalty, so why was he allowed to start Q3? I get that the stewards prefer to get a driver’s version of events where possible, but in clear-cut cases like this the integrity of the contest should be paramount.

  4. 1) there is no Gentleman’s Agreement. It is a fallacy.
    2) the “rule” about turn 9 and 10, clearly wasn’t a rule, just a polite request.
    3) Can we have published the lap times of all these drivers on their out laps? There is a prescribed minimum time between safety car lines. If they exceeded that (which surely some must have), then that’s a slam dunk penalty regardless of how many did it, or who’s fault it was.
    4) Once again F1 is allowing a transgression and the bad handling of it to completely undermine the fact that Q3 was really exciting and a great advert for F1!

    1. 3) Can we have published the lap times of all these drivers on their out laps? There is a prescribed minimum time between safety car lines. If they exceeded that (which surely some must have), then that’s a slam dunk penalty regardless of how many did it, or who’s fault it was.

      This sounds like a good idea: Declare the times of drivers who exceed the prescribed maximum lap time allowed, or maybe there needs to be maximum sector times and to declare those drivers who exceed those times. I’m not sure what one should do about drivers who do exceed the maximum sector times (and assuming their excessive time wasn’t related to a Yellow Flag event or tyre failure or such like), but if someone did have a compromised lap time then at least it gives a guideline for who the Stewards should blame.

      1. Not what you asked for, but these are the times of S3 on the last outlap:
        LEC 26.3s
        NOR 27.1
        ALO 27.2
        GIO 27.5
        GAS 27.9
        TSU 28.9
        VER 33.4
        SAI 38.2
        HAM 39.2
        RUS 41.2
        STR 41.3
        RIC 46.2
        BOT 47.0
        PER 65.1
        VET 67.2

        Maybe they should create a ‘staging area’ off the racing line before turn 9, from where they should prepare to start the timed lap.

        1. Excellent work!
          It shows just how crazy it is!

        2. Well, at least the slowest was penalised, 40 sec more than the fastest in s3 is not few, you could penalise a handful of them cause it’s really unnecessarily slow.

          1. Vettel was the slowest, because:
            1. he was slowed down because of the many cars who passed him in the last sector
            2. he aborted his lap and slowed down to make room for Alonso

          2. Only because he was overtaken by cars that “shouldn’t” have, based on mutual respect.

        3. That amply demonstrates that position in the queue was the key determinant of how long one’s Sector 3 is.

    2. @eurobrun There is a gentleman’s agreement, and has been since the Monza 2019 debacle forced it to be made. It was meant to avoid that very situation, though clearly it is not a complete solution.

      1. @alianora-la-canta I still think its BS and just platitudes that the drivers say when it suits their narrative.
        Please can we just accept that its rubbish and doesn’t work, then never mention it again!

        1. @eurobrun With what do you plan to replace it? Because the previous situation was worse.

          1. @alianora-la-canta
            A rule that is enforced by the stewards, considering the drivers have had a couple of years now to prove that they can’t sort themselves out.
            Define a max time for S3. If you exceed it, penalty.
            S3 at speed is 20s. More than 35s is excessive in my book. JFF above put the S3 times of everyone. Makes interesting reading. A hot lap is 63s!

          2. @alianora-la-canta There’s already a maximum time in the regulations for the entire lap, and the queue was a lap long (Fernando was the first car in the queue and Sebastian the last car in it).

            Unfortunately, you’ll need a different solution if you want something other than “penalise every single driver in the queue, including Fernando himself”.

          3. @eurobrun I meant to tag you with that comment. (For anyone having trouble seeing the lap-long queue, find some video of the GPS tracker and watch what happens between Turns 2 and 3. The consistent gap between Alonso and each of the cars behind is reflected in the amount of gap that develops down that straight. This indicates all drivers attempting a lap at the end of Q2 were in the queue, that Fernando was at the head of the queue, Sebastian was at the back, and what we saw was the front of the queue meeting the back.

  5. Isnt it impeding to overtake a car on the outlap and then breaking so that that car don’t make it to the startline in time? Clearly vettel was impeded by the car in front of him since he could not start his lap

    1. …who in turn was impeded by the car in front of him, etc etc, until you get to the head of the queue where Fernando was situated.

  6. I am not a Vettel’s fan, quite the opposite, actually. But this is BS and HS. Every time I think that the stewards can’t impress me anymore with their strange decisions, they crash my hopes entirely.

    Either punish the team and every racer who was too slow, or don’t punish any one.

    Vettel can’t know for sure what happens after him, so the blame is 100% on his engineer. Vettel could’ve thought “Oh, I’m not going to make it, so I’ll move away from the racing line just in case”. But it’s still impossible to know if you have time or not without your engineer giving you this information. Punish the team, then.

    1. Alexander Arizanov
      4th July 2021, 9:39

      Yap, fully agree. They did not informed him. Even when they see it will not make it. I think they did it in purpose.

  7. So, as I wondered before qualifying, with the new ‘rule’ (how much is it a rule when it’s clearly not being enforced?), doesn’t that just shift the problem to before those last tow turns; and so it was, with VET, PER did indeed obey the letter of the rule, but in effect what they did is not in any way less problematic that what we had last week which caused this new rule: it is still creating a bottleneck.

    And indeed, what Hamilton says about different cars needing a different tyre preparation/outlap plays into that with some being hurt more than others when those ahead force them to slow (or overtake, which also then might put them on the dirty bits of the track). And of course: everyone going at the last minute rather than allowing more time.

    At this point I am wondering whether the FIA should have a ‘traffic regulation’ system which allows cars on track with a ~4-5 sec. interval only – and teams get assigned a spot in the queue when they leave the garage; put up their time before they can get onto the pit-lane ‘main’ (extra advantage: get rid of trying to queue jump when it’s busy in the pit-lane with cars trying to overtake each other there or having borderline safe situations when getting out of the garage). That gets complicated fast, so no, I don’t want to see this; I’d prefer teams to use their common sense, but if they don’t, maybe the FIA can threaten this including a malus on the entry-fee to pay for it?

  8. I miss Charlie.

    1. @hatebreeder He was just as bad as Masi. Practically corrupt.

      1. Very dangerous incidents happened under Charlie and Herbie, so very dangerous incidents under Masi isn’t the only thing we are all enraged at.

      2. Agree on charlie being particularly bad, when there was immediately some bad decision by masi early on, someone said “charlie’s legacy” leaves on, couldn’t agree more, he was particularly inconsistent, there were a lot of complaints about that.

        1. lives on*

  9. Bring back hot lap qualifying and do it properly. So many people love this qualifying format for reasons I’ll never understand. Having so many cars on a track this short with such a required gap will always create difficulties.

    And if cars can follow without losing as much time then drafting will become a massive issue.

    Let’s just be done with it and move to something better.

    1. Lopes da Silva
      4th July 2021, 10:09

      66% of racefans readers, apparently. It’s a huge majority, we’re not having it.
      I can’t properly watch a single driver doing a hotlap. They’re all doing at the same time. I would rather watch a sprint race. But it is what it is.

    2. @skipgamer Completely agreed. The reason for this qualifying format being popular are incomprehensible to me. Even 10 years on, I still don’t see the appeal of seeing the same four guys knocked out in Q1, then having one or two guys be the ‘surprise’ losers of Q2 despite having no chance to do better than P8 in Q3 anyway. When it really matters in Q3, everyone does their lap at the same time so the coverage devolves into a shot of the start-finish straight where the only excitement is seeing the sidebar table update with new times.

      The pole laps are interesting to watch, because you see the F1 cars at their fastest and their speed through the corners is very impressive. But little of that carries over into the normal broadcast. One lap qualifying is much better as you get to see everyone’s lap in its entirety.

    3. @skipgamer Because it’s the best qualifying format they have ever used which has several points of interest/excitement & potential drama as we get to the end of each segment. The excitement, tension & drama builds through each segment & the final seconds of each always provide some excitement & drama as the order changes as each car crosses the line.

      The single lap/hot lap formats simply never provided that, It always fell flat & always lacked any real tension or excitement. The opening phase with the slowest cars was never that interesting to watch & as you got closer to the end it became easier to read the results by sector 1 taking all the drama away from the end.

      Not to ignore how unfair that format could be with track evolution & changeable weather.

      Additionally that format was awful to watch when sitting trackside as you were only seeing 1 car pass by at speed every 80-ish seconds. Sitting trackside during qualifying in 2003-2005 when F1 ran that format was actually the most boring experience i’ve ever had at a track during a race weekend & many I spoke to in the stands back then felt similarly.

      I also seem to recall that circuit attendance & TV Viewership for qualifying declined quite steeply as it was clear most fans were bored by it which is why promoters & broadcasters were so keen to see the format changed.

      1. Lopes da Silva
        4th July 2021, 13:27

        Roger Ayles is absolutely right: the current qualifying system is about “The excitement, tension & drama builds through each segment”. It’s not about pure sport or watching the perfect qualifying lap. That ended long ago. Actually, fans lost interest in it. The 2003-05 format is neither good to watch nor sportingly fair. The good format was the 1996-2002, but that would be impossible for today’s standard.
        This is why I want sprint races and whatever they want to come up with on Saturdays, because the sporting and artistic aspect of qualifying ended in 2002 and people don’t want it back.

      2. I agree with your comment about how the effect of the weather can change a car’s performance. The fairest way is to give everyone the same opportunity to set a lap time.

  10. Tommy Scragend
    4th July 2021, 9:28

    I’m no fan of Alonso and I do sympathise with Vettel here, but the fact remains that when Alonso arrived in the last corner on his hot lap there was a car on his line, blocking him. That car was Vettel’s. That’s why Vettel got the penalty.

    The circumstances which led to Vettel’s car being there are obviously more complex, but it was Vettel’s car that impeded Alonso.

    1. Agreed and Vettel does deserve a penalty. But, so are the ones putting Vettel in that position and there lies the problem.

  11. Alexander Arizanov
    4th July 2021, 9:33

    I know it sound crazy, but I have the impression (Vettel was asking ‘why you did not told about Alonso’ they did it with purpose (Engineers of Aton Martin) . They need to be send last both cars.
    To Avoid this I like the old days where drivers have had as many runs they want and tires with restriction. Then every driver will have a clear run. By limiting (money saving) will have this. There was time every driver have had 2 clear run for PP.

  12. The big problem is that every directive they give is also a grey area and not picked effectively. If they wanted to fix it they’d force the drivers to keep their position as they go out of the pits, maintaining a speed at certain delta like they do in VSC situations.

    As much hate as Nikita I get his feelings. Why shout so hard when it was him, but keep so quiet with all the others?

    1. Well said @fer-n65, though note that the fact that some teams/cars require slower laps than others (and Verstappen seems to have very little limits about how fast or slow to take his outlap here) also invites gaming when teams might want to hurt competitors, so a strict ‘no-overtaking in outlap’ might mean a fight in the pitlane. In the end it either stays messy, or enforcement becomes a bit of a beast I fear.

  13. I feel everyone in the train should have been penalised for collectively causing a situation where baulking drivers on hot laps was inevitable. Possibly with a bigger penalty for whoever was at the front of the train (as they had the most power to prevent the regulation breach). That would be the most reliable way of sort out this nonsense.

    Otherwise track rubbering is going to create more people trying to do their runs as late as possible and aero will cause more queuing (note the “gentleman’s agreement” often referred to by drivers is about not messing up other drivers’ aero given those dictates). The result is that anyone who doesn’t want to be part of that nonsense is going to get caught up in it – and the FIA will continue to face dilemmas that really aren’t.

  14. How can we expect policing not-making-traffic-jam-after-turn-9 while they are not able to do this with track limits? Sometimes it is a white line, sometimes an edge of a curb, sometimes nothing. It is a joke.

  15. I think something that would maybe improve this would simply be tires that weren’t quite as sensitive as what we have now with a larger operating window than what we have now as the reason they are all driving so slowly as they do now on the out lap is purely down to how much preparation the current tires need to get them into the small operating window they need to be in.

    When the tires didn’t need preparing as much & when the working temperature range was larger we never used to see this because they didn’t need to go so slowly on out laps & you also didn’t get all of this backing up in sector 3 because of that.

    The problem with the various bits of over-regulation & driver agreements is that they are aimed at the result rather than actually looking at the actual cause

    1. @roger-ayles But the overriding concern in F1 is that one simply does not criticize Pirelli. Just look at all the twists and turns the FIA and Pirelli went through after, in a rare moment of honesty, Verstappen mockingly predicted they would brush his crash off as being caused by debris. In response, F1 got new tests, new regulations, pages upon pages of new technical directives, the whole nine yards.

  16. there is no solution other than to eliminate the problem, if you had to work the tyres rather than cool them, you would end up with much less blocking as cars flow faster.

  17. Know we have an explanation I kinda agree with the stewards

    At the end of the day, Alonso’s lap was ruined by Vettel so he must get a penalty

    The fact Vettel was in that position is entirely his own fault. He left it too late to start his lap & went too slowly around the track. He should be lucky it’s only 3 places.

    Perhaps FIA should close pit exit at a certain time and let the drivers go do their lap, rather than having the session finish time as the start/finish time

    Then have a rule that says once pit exit is closed you can only set 1 flying lap and have like 5 minutes to complete in

    That way the drivers know exactly how long they have got to get on the track and then they can find some space

    1. I like your take. No different from driver A rear ended by driver B forcing driver A off track at great speed manages to recover but has now through no fault of his inadvertently overtaken 5 or 6 car and then gets a penalty for overtaking off the track.

      If the rules says no slowing down at turns 9 and 10 then the lap times of those who are responsible for others slowing down in those corners have to be deleted, similar to running beyond the track limits and gaining an advantage.
      There must be a formula or process for establishing culpability and not just “apprehending the individual caught holding the cookie jar irrespective of if he was only moving it to a safer location”.

  18. in short or clumsy tracks FIA should re-introduce pole positions turns – one hot lap for all the three sessions and these kind of mess is avoided for sure.

  19. Maybe make no passing in S3 a rule rather than a gentleman’s agreement. Maybe even sectors 2 & 3. Make the drivers establish their order early and stick to it.

    It does sound like Vettel was left with no way of avoiding the situation, after being passed by so many in the last few corners. That’s two weeks in a row that the gentleman’s agreement has been conveniently ignored by some of the most senior drivers on the grid. I sympathise with Mazepin being made the whipping boy for his transgressions while multiple world champions seem to get away with the same behaviour scot free.

  20. Alonso was furious as

    as… as… as WHAT?!? I NEED TO KNOW!

Comments are closed.