Outspoken former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber wants team penalties to replace grid drops for breaching mechanical rules.
With each driver limited to just four complete power units over the course of this season, it is likely a good number will have to start from the back of the grid at least once this year due to the five and 10-place grid penalties that are given for exceeding that number. A change of gearbox from Practice 3 onwards can also result in a five-place drop with the rules stipulating each transmission must last six consecutive races.
A change of gearbox from Practice 3 onwards can also result in a five-place drop with the rules stipulating each transmission must last six consecutive races.
We have already seen an insane example of the current system at work with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne picking up a combined 70-place grid penalty for the last race in Baku, three-and-a-half times the number of cars on the grid, and for Webber that is not only wrong for those behind the wheel but also detrimental to viewers at home.
“There’s too much policing,” Webber said at the FIA Sport Conference in Geneva recently. “I don’t want any penalties for a driver that’s had nothing to do with it.
“[For example] if a mechanic has put a brake disc in the wrong way, and a driver is at the back of the grid.
“A lot of people don’t watch qualifying, they turn on [for the race] and are like, ‘why is my favourite driver at the back of the grid?’ and so we lose people for that,” he added.
“It’s hard enough to get the quality at the front of the grid as it is, let alone having guys diluted down the back through no reason of their own, so we don’t need all that junk in there.”
With sustainability and cost saving the main reasons for the limitations, the problem the FIA faces is imposing a system that deters teams from accepting the consequences of breaking the limit.
Until this year there was another problem with teams that would purposely use two or three new engines at a single race to avoid facing the same penalties at a later race.
Giving his idea on a penalty that would have the same effect, the former Minardi, Williams, Jaguar and Red Bull driver suggested: “Constructors’ points, whatever. Find a way that you don’t hurt the driver.
“There have been so many ridiculous penalties over the last five years that the driver has had nothing to do with, and it’s had a big impact on how the weekend would have been in terms of entertainment.”