Jan Bolscher
Sunday, August 27, 2023 12:52 – Last update: 12:53
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes that the FIA should intervene harder if drivers interfere with each other during qualifying for a Formula 1 race. The Austrian saw Lewis Hamilton fail to qualify for Q3 last Saturday after losing time to Yuki Tsunoda.
Tsunoda drove on the dry line on his out-lap, forcing the trailing Hamilton to swerve to the wet part of the track on his fast lap, losing several important tenths. The seven-time world champion said afterwards that he was not satisfied with the performance of his W13 in Zandvoort anyway, but Wolf completely attributed the fact that his driver only managed to qualify 13th to the moment with Tsunoda. Drivers getting in each other’s way in search of a good track position is a regular occurrence, especially on shorter tracks such as the one in Zandvoort. The FIA records these moments and issues penalties if deemed necessary [Tsunoda kreeg uiteindelijk een gridstraf van drie plaatsen]but according to Wolff it is too often overlooked.
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Annoying to see
“Lewis had good speed all weekend and it’s painful to see that due to traffic he didn’t end up in Q3, which he deserved,” he told GPFans, among others. “The interference is annoying to see. People don’t care or are not penalized. When I look at Alonso’s interference in Q1, it was a clear violation, but it wasn’t even [door de FIA] At the time Wolff made these statements, it was not yet known that Tsunoda would be moved back three places.
Punish
What is the solution according to Wolff? “The answer is to punish. Punish, punish, punish. If you know you don’t have to go to jail for tax fraud, you are committing tax fraud. I don’t understand why these things aren’t being punished. In Q1 there were a few clear obstructions and Tsunoda , he’s a nice lad but he hindered Lewis on his fast lap he didn’t go off the dry line you could say he dove to the inside and it didn’t take much but from a dry to a wet to another Going dry line costs a lot. Those few tenths would have gotten Lewis into Q3. It needs to be penalized and then people will look in their mirrors again.”
