Team bosses call for rules common sense

26/07/2016
NEWS STORY

Be it the apparent double standards over radio communications or drivers exceeding track limits, fans are getting very, very frustrated.

A sport already losing fans as the Mercedes steamroller continues to dominate, continues to shoot itself in the foot with decisions, and lack of decisions, that are making F1 a laughing stock.

It was over three hours after qualifying on Saturday before stewards finally decided to investigate Nico Rosberg's controversial pole-winning lap, the move said to have been made only after Lewis Hamilton had words with Charlie Whiting.

Other than the total lack of consistency on track limits, at Silverstone the race result was in doubt for several hours as the stewards investigated Rosberg's radio communications with his team.

Eventually ruling that it was only part of the radio communication that was illegal the German was hit with a ten-second penalty demoting him from second to third.

Previously, Force India, with an eye on the radio rules failed to warn Sergio Perez that his brakes were in danger of failing, the Mexican subsequently crashing out.

Then, in Hungary, following an update to the rules, Jenson Button was left fuming after he was penalised for a message that he insists was safety and not performance related.

"So the brake pedal going to the floor is not classed as a safety issue? Interesting," fumed the Briton over the team radio for all the world to hear. "I think Charlie needs to read up on what is safe and what isn't."

While Kimi Raikkonen has called for clarification of the rules following his battle with Max Verstappen, team bosses and drivers are left baffled by events on Saturday which threated the grid positions of a number of leading drivers after they failed to post times within the 107% limit of a chaotic Q1.

And if those whose job it is to understand and obey the rules, what of the fans, who, already frustrated by the fact that the final result might not be what they see on track, but that sometimes the rules, and their application, appear to favour one driver over another.

"In my opinion, we need to clean up all the grey areas in the rules," said Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene. "If you have a grey area you never know where you are going, and you start to go left and right.

"My president raised that topic a year ago," he added, referring to comments made by Sergio Marchionne, "he said clearly we have too many complications. Clear, simple rules can help the sport."

"We need a common sense rule, but probably in Formula One that doesn't exist," said Christian Horner. "It's like the radio situation with Jenson Button, I haven't seen what was said or recorded but we're over-regulating and making it too complicated for the fans.

"You need to keep it simple that a casual viewer can tune in and pick up what's going on without over-regulating."

At Mercedes, Toto Wolff has also admitted frustration at the inconsistency, claiming the sport's powers-that-be have become nervous following Jules Bianchi's accident in Japan in 2014.

Indeed, the Austrian has raised concern over another move that has left fans frustrated in recent weeks, the decision to start the British Grand Prix behind the safety car and the subsequent decision to leave the safety car out on track for longer than most drivers thought necessary.

With this in mind the Strategy Group will discuss the issue when it meets in Geneva on Thursday, where one of the other topic up for discussion is the Halo device, another topic to polarise opinion in the pitlane.

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Published: 26/07/2016
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