Miami stewards dish out penalties with Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas summoned
Lewis Hamilton pit lane with his Mercedes mechanics
The Miami race stewards have taken no further action against Mercedes for a pit lane infringement, however, Valtteri Bottas wasn’t as lucky as he received a three-place grid drop for the Sprint.
Mercedes, Bottas and Oscar Piastri were called to see the stewards after Friday’s Sprint qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix for two separate infringements.
Mercedes avoid penalty as stewards call for FIA action
During SQ2, Lewis Hamilton’s mechanics appeared to work on his car without their helmets on, which is a breach of Article 34.13 of the sporting regulations.
The stewards, though, took no action against Mercedes as they noted that a “number of other teams” had done the same.
“As we were examining the conduct of the team in relation to this infringement (which was reported to us by race control), it came to our attention that a number of other teams had engaged in similar work without helmets and/or without eye protection during the session either within the pit stop position or in close proximity to it,” read the stewards’ notes.
“Certainly, those that were working on the car within the pit stop positions would also have been in breach of Article 34.13 (for example by touching the car or jacking up the car). Indeed, those slightly outside of their pit stop position may not been in breach of the above article but the distinction, from a safety perspective (which is the likely purpose for this rule), was not obvious to us.
“Furthermore, it appears to be the established practice to jack the car up, while blowers are used to cool the brakes, within the pit stop position to bring the car back into the garage. That too, read strictly, could be in breach of the above regulations.
“So, in these circumstances, penalising one team, where all or nearly all the teams may potentially have been in breach of this article in some form or the other would not serve a useful purpose.”
They urged the FIA to “consider whether changes need to be made to either the current practices during qualifying/dprint qualifying or the regulations themselves.”
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Valtteri Bottas sent to the back of the Sprint grid
They, however, weren’t so lenient when it came to Bottas who was summoned for impeding Piastri at Turn 1 in SQ1.
Bottas was on a cooldown lap heading towards Turn 1 as Piastri came flying up behind him in the McLaren. Squeezing Piastri up the inside, the two were fortunate to avoid contact.
The stewards’ verdict read: “On the straight before turn one, car 77 [Bottas] was being driven slowly on the racing line after finishing a fast lap, while car 81 [Piastri] was approaching on a fast lap. Car 81 and car 77 needed to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
“The primary responsibility rests with the driver to ensure that he does not place himself in a position whereby he unnecessarily impedes another driver. Here Car 77 was driving slowly on the racing line and caused to the situation that ensued.
“However, during the hearing both team and driver of Car 77 admitted that the team had not warned the driver of Car 77 that Car 81 was approaching on a fast lap. That was obviously an error on the team’s part and contributed significantly to the incident.”
Hit with a three-place penalty, Bottas drops to the very back of the grid as he qualified down in 18th place in the Stake Sauber.