02/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Alpine sporting director, Alan Permane calls for a rethink of the Sprint regulations after Esteban Ocon was penalised twice for the same 'offence'.
The new rules, only agreed days before the first Sprint of the season, mean that the cars are under parc fermé conditions as soon as they leave their garages on Friday afternoon for qualifying.
Consequently, after his team opted to make changes to his suspension set-up after Saturday's shootout, Ocon was obliged to start both the Sprint and Grand Prix from the pitlane.
"The problem is, if you don't do that, you open up a big loophole where you could set your car up specifically for the Sprint and then have a better car for the race," said Permane, according to Speedcafe.com. "I don't see a way around it.
"We've talked about it in the various sporting meetings we've had between the last race and Azerbaijan," he added. "Of course, this regulation has been pushed through quickly and I don't think it's perfect. I'm sure we've all discovered things that are a little bit imperfect with it over weekend.
"The regulations allow us to change it ahead of the next one in Austria, which I'm sure there will be a few little tweaks to it."