After protest against Carlos Sainz, Frederic Vasseur says rules have become more and more complicated – Every team needs a gaggle of lawyers
Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur has described the rules of Formula 1 as increasingly complicated following a confusion over Carlos Sainz in China. The Spaniard faced a protest from Aston Martin after he spun into the barriers in qualifying, but continued after a while.
Sainz then took part in the rest of qualifying as normal and finished in the top 10. However, Aston Martin had doubts as to whether Sainz should have been allowed to continue after the red flag was triggered.
For Ferrari, the matter was clear: “We asked race control whether we could restart and they said yes – end of story,” says Vasseur.
This is because Article 39.6 of the Sporting Regulations actually stipulates that cars that stop on the track are not allowed to continue. In Sainz’s case, race control had even officially signaled that a car had stopped on the track.
But for Vasseur, this is nonsense: “Then ten cars stop when they spin,” he says and demands: “We have to define the situation precisely.”
“But the rules are getting more and more complicated anyway,” he continues. “When I started the job, the sporting regulations consisted of 20 pages. Now there are 75.”
In addition, with so many rules, you always find loopholes because there are rules that contradict each other. Vasseur recalls an example when Kimi Räikkönen spun on an outlap in Imola
This is the crash of Sainz at the ChinaGP-Quali, which is still under investigation. F12024 F1 Formula1 pic.twitter.com/cqHLTv12S4
– Christian Nimmervoll (@MST_ChristianN) April 20, 2024
“At the time, we had two different articles that dealt with the same case: one said black and the other white,” says Vasseur.
According to him, this proliferation has now led to many teams employing ever larger departments of lawyers to deal with cases.
“At the end of the day, it’s the same situation as with the technical regulations: we’re all trying to find loopholes and the rules are getting more and more complicated.” But: “In this case, I think we will find a simple clarification. “
