Pointless Penalties

[F1fanaticBD]

Definitely it hit the low, when this people are slapped with penalty of 10 grid position, when they have almost nothing.

http://en.espnf1.com/korea/motorsport/story/128297.html

I would like to propose add 5 seconds to their lap time for their lap time in the next race, so that they will find themselves outside 107%, and thus will be a lot more careful.

Though the merit of the slapping these reprimands and grid penalties is a totally different discussion, but I would like to give Race control the ability to impose such punishment.

[Irisado]

Since the offence in this case didn't actually prevent Di Resta getting into Q2, they could have just issued a reprimand and be done with it.

Why add five seconds?  Why stop them from qualifying?  All way too harsh in my opinion.  The present system isn't fair, but I do think that some of the penalties for unintentional blocks in qualifying are silly anyway.  Quite a few of them have been caused by lack of information from the team to the driver.  Maybe they should just fine the team instead?

[lkjohnson1950]

I agree. If a driver does a Schumacher and deliberately blocks the track to prevent flyers by following drivers, that's one thing. If you're on a flyer and come round a bend to find a driver on a normal cool down lap, that's racing. Get over it and next time don't leave your best effort until the last minute of a session.

[John S]

Hear, Hear, Lonny! 

The tailenders get enough crap from the system anyway with the stupid blue flag rule, oh and the way money in F1 always goes to the well offs, so it's nice to see a bit of natural justice restored. 

 

[F1fanaticBD]

Since the offence in this case didn't actually prevent Di Resta getting into Q2, they could have just issued a reprimand and be done with it.

I am not saying that Bianchi should have been punished for this incident with 5 second penalty. What I meant was giving the race control a fair bit of armory to give harsh penalty if there is more severe offender. [Though lately I am questioning their judgement regarding issueing penalty]

[Alianora La Canta]

The stewards have a certain amount of latitude. They can issue reprimands, 3-place, 5-place or 10-place grid penalties, or outright exclude drivers from qualifying (the latter happened with Schumacher's strongly-suspected deliberate "parking" move in qualifying). In theory, they can exclude a driver from the whole meeting as well, though that penalty has never been used in F1 for this offence.

The trouble with the backmarkers is that the penalties on offer are either meaningless or excessively harsh - and it's not clear that any other penalty would find the appropriate balance between punishment and rationality. So I suppose we will have to settle for stewards issuing token penalties unless the crime is particularly bad. And nobody is going to try "parking" to secure 18th place on the grid...

Of course, one problem with the current qualifying is that if you don't leave your best effort until the last minute, you'll probably be kicked out at that session anyway (unless it's raining, or you're driving a Red Bull or Mercedes, and even that doesn't always hold true). One-lap qualifying has been introduced with this format, and 22 cars on some of the twistier tracks is a problem depending on car distribution. Something needs to be there for deliberate blocks... ...and there isn't enough time between sessions for the stewards to issue natural justice for only deliberate or egregious blocks.