General
Windsor pleads for time zone on grid penalties: "This is not good for Formula 1".
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton was given a grid penalty on Sunday for not slowing down his speed during qualifying under yellow flags. Initially the race management did nothing, but after protests from Red Bull Racing and additional data analysis, the British driver was penalized. This gave Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Alexander Albon an advantage, as they moved up a place. However, the decision for the grid penalty came too late, says journalist Peter Windsor.
Time zone
"I have to say, this is not good for Formula 1", Windsor starts his speech on his YouTube channel, "Everybody's like: Is Lewis getting anything from a grid penalty? Will he waste his time? Did he keep going during the yellow? Then came the final decision of the stewards after qualifying with 'No', they have looked at the evidence and there is no reason to do it [punish Lewis], because there was also a green screen at the same time."
"Everyone goes to bed, wakes up and just before the race: 'Oh, we've looked at more evidence and Lewis gets a three-seat grid penalty. I don't think that's neat. I think there should be some sort of time zone and once that time is over there's nothing that can be done about it." After all, the decision to punish Hamilton came quite late and that after a final decision had already been made, which can seem confusing.
"Formula 1 is moving fast towards a new era and we have to make sure that this kind of loose ends don't hang out everywhere and cause interruptions", concludes Windsor who of course refers to the new regulations in 2022, where in his opinion also this kind of things have to be clearly defined.