F1 needs to review the way they apply penalties and the way they ensure the way they are served.
Let’s firstly set aside the issue of consistency in the decisions. This is a separate but no less important question.
There have been several penalties applied in recent times that do not appear to have had the desired outcome. Which I believe should be to punish breaches in the rules or driving standards in the race for which they occurred.
There have been examples of where the penalty appears to have had little to no impact. Such as Hass in the recent Saudi race where the penalty, via smart team play actually provided a benefit. Or the many ‘overtaking off track’ or ‘running other drivers of the track’ overtakes, where the penalty has no impact once the driver gets past and gains enough time to offset the penalty.
Then there is the example of Perez in Japan last year (I think) retiring from the race, only to serve his penalty sitting in the car in the pits. He had clearly retired from the race at this point. Any penalty served had no impact on the outcome of the race. Why force someone who has retired from the race to serve a penalty? Compared with the recent example of Daniel in a similar position now has a 3 grid position penalty for the next race. Pretty much wrecking his next weekend.
I am not defending Daniel. He passed under a SC and should not have done that. But with today’s technology the call should have been made immediately. The rules are clear. There are cameras everywhere and plenty of people to review them.
Teams have figured out how to game the penalty system. Penalties should be served within 3 laps. Don’t give drivers the time to benefit from them. If you have done your pit stop, then so be it. All time penalties should be served in the pits.
Calls should be made almost immediately. Penalties should only impact you in the race with you received them. Besides for extreme cases of dangerous driving. If the driver ends up retiring before serving the penalty, is this not sufficient?
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