Two of Formula 1’s top team bosses, Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, have slammed the events which caused chaos in Q3 at the Italian Grand Prix.
Seven of the nine drivers were unable to start a second flying lap as a mad scramble to get a slipstream meant they failed to reach the start/finish line before the end of the session.
As a result, Charles Leclerc took pole with three drivers, Alex Albon, Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen – who crashed at Parabolica – failing to set a time in the top 10 shoot-out.
“Have you ever seen anything like that?” Mercedes boss Wolff declared as quoted by Motorsport Week. “That was not even worthy of a junior formula.
“The problem is that everyone is trying to get the slipstream and it’s a nerve game of who exits first and then some who exit first think to reduce their speed even more.”
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Both he and Red Bull chief Horner identified Nico Hulkenberg as the main suspect in terms of creating the out-lap of chaos.
“Going through the chicane outside of the track is just junior class and then everybody just looked like idiots,” Wolff claimed.
“Hulkenberg going through the chicane then other cars reducing their speed. Not worthy of Formula 1.”
Horner agreed: “The Renault that went straight on caused all the issues because nobody wants to be at the front of the queue. He obviously did that on purpose and it ends up as a complete clusterf**k scenario.
“The clerk of the course is going to have an issue with that, for sure. It was all just a bit silly.”
Indeed Hulkenberg in one of the three drivers summoned to the stewards, Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz being the others, to explain his actions based on the regulation which states a driver can’t simply go off track “without a justifiable reason”.
“We are all looking for a tow because if you want to do the ultimate fastest lap time that is what you need from around do here as the tow is so powerful,” Hulkenberg, who holds sixth pending any penalty, told Crash.net.
“When you drive on your own you lose out on the straights and you can’t make up that time in the corners so that is why we ended up with these conditions.
“To some extent, it is also down to these cars as the tow effect is massive but of course it was a bit weird and strange, that last out lap.
“Everybody starts slowing down, that’s the thing with nobody wanting to be first on the train. That’s what you get.”