Ferrari boss highlights contradictions and increase in volume of rules over the years
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur recently commented on the difficulties faced with sporting regulations in Formula 1, stating that they are becoming “increasingly complicated” and revealing how much the document has grown during his time in the series.
During qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz spun and caused the session to be temporarily interrupted with a red flag. Although Sainz managed to continue, passing this part of the classification, Aston Martin protested the results, claiming that, because he had “stopped” on the circuit, he should have been banned from further participation.
The appeal was denied by the stewards who explained that, as Ferrari managed to return to the pits without external assistance, there was no violation of sporting rules. This verdict was partly based on the common understanding that Article 39.6 of the sporting rules relates only to a car that cannot return to the pits under its own power.
The confusion generated by the wording of Article 39.6 put the issue in the spotlight, with RacingNews365 asking Vasseur after the Chinese Grand Prix whether it was now clear what the rule was. Vasseur replied: “I don’t know if it’s clear, but we certainly need to have some understanding of what happened, because yesterday, we asked if we could restart, he [o diretor de corrida] I said yes, and that was the end of the story.”
Vasseur then moved on to the inherent inconsistencies found in regulations more generally, highlighting how the growth in the size of sporting rules has led to contradictions. “But of course, what is true is that regulation is increasingly complicated. When I started the job, the sports regulations had 20 pages, today there are 75”, he observed.
He further mentioned a previous incident: “You will always find loopholes because you have cross articles. I remember a few years ago when Kimi [Raikkonen] ran on the exit lap in Imola, we had two different articles reporting the same case: one saying black and the other saying white.”
While Aston Martin failed in its mission to change the qualifying results for the Chinese Grand Prix, it is a team that has profited from protests in recent years – such as getting Fernando Alonso’s podium reinstated at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and ensuring track limit infringements were properly scrutinized at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, which earned the team more points through penalties to rivals.
“It’s complicated, because as a consequence, the teams are getting bigger and bigger, with more and more lawyers”, argued Vasseur. “Ultimately, we are in the same situation as with technical regulation – we are all trying to find a loophole and the regulation is now more and more complicated, but I think in this case a clear clarification”, concluded the team leader Ferrari.
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