#chines gp 2024

[eirianerisdar]

Here's why Daniel getting a three-place penalty for the next race is yet again evidence that the FIA need to review their regulations:

These are the regulations for overtaking under safety car:

The stewards were right in that Hulkenberg could pass both Lance and Daniel under safety car under Article 55.8 (h), because Lance had crashed into Daniel and they were both cars with obvious problems.

But, glaringly, there is nothing in the regs that state what happens if the car that was passed quickly gets back up to speed and tries to put themselves back into the correct order, which is what you usually do if you get out of order behind the safety car, whether because of pit exits or otherwise.

I'm not saying the stewards could have changed their verdict, but it's only on paper that Daniel had no leg to stand on, because logically, that was his spot and he was very quickly back on Hulk's tail after his wheels hit the ground again. Clearly this is yet another gap in the regs that should have been logically addressed because a situation like this would eventually come up.

It's a similar gap that "stopping on track during qualifying" needed clarification for, and last year, with the 20-place grid drop Carlos suffered for the drain cover that smashed through his car and necessitated changing its components.

Needless to say, a missed gap in the regs causing what would be a logical regaining of a spot to lead to a three-place grid penalty and 2 penatly points for a driver reflects rather more poorly on the FIA regs themselves than the driver who got punted then tried to put himself back where he should have been behind the safety car.