Aston Martin protested in opposition to the qualifying end in Shanghai after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rejoined Q2 after spinning off the monitor.
Sainz was stationary for 77 seconds after tapping the wall popping out of the ultimate nook, however the Spaniard managed to get going once more and superior to Q3 on the expense of Aston driver Lance Stroll.
As its driver was eradicated, Aston determined to protest the outcomes based mostly on article 39.6 of the F1 sporting rules, which states that “any driver whose automotive stops on the monitor throughout the qualifying session or the dash qualifying session shootout won’t be permitted to take any additional half in that session.”
The stewards dismissed the protest because it had been clear from earlier cases that the rule is barely meant for automobiles that re-join a qualifying session after having obtained outdoors help from marshals or restoration autos, whereas Sainz continued underneath his personal energy.
However the incident re-opened a dialogue about tidying up the rulebook, as beforehand it was agreed that the skin help ingredient needs to be added to 39.6, although the modification did not make it into the 2024 sporting rules.
“It is simply clarifying issues and, in the long run, a number of dialogue with the stewards and you have to respect the selections they’ve come to,” Aston Martin’s efficiency director Tom McCullough defined.
“However hopefully it will get tidied up and be much less ambiguous going ahead as a result of it is fairly clearly said within the messaging system that the automotive stopped.
“That article says that that automotive should not participate additional in qualifying. So, that’ll get tidied up going ahead.”
Ferrari staff principal Fred Vasseur agreed that an specific clarification is welcome to keep away from additional confusion, declaring that F1’s sporting rules have change into ever extra advanced.
“I do not know if it is clear, however for positive we have to have some understanding of what occurred,” Vasseur stated.
“We requested the race director if we might restart, he stated sure, and it was the tip of the story. Now we have to outline the state of affairs precisely.
“However what’s true is that the rules are increasingly sophisticated. Once I began the job, the sporting regulation was 20 pages, at present it is 75.
“We’re all looking for a loophole and the rules at the moment are increasingly sophisticated, however on this one, we are going to discover a simple clarification.”
McCullough revealed Aston’s long-time sporting director Andy Stevenson instantly known as out the potential guidelines breach as soon as Sainz’s automotive had stopped on monitor.
“Andy sits subsequent to me on the pit wall and he is aware of that rulebook inside out, he’s like an encyclopaedia. He is been right here for thus lengthy,” McCullough stated.
“The minute it got here up on the official messaging system {that a} automotive had stopped, he went – bang – ‘Article 39.6, he cannot [rejoin].’
“We have been just a little bit stunned, which is why [we protested].”