Williams team principal James Vowles said they must develop better tools to prevent a repeat of the penalty Logan Sargeant received last weekend.
Sargeant was given a 10-second time penalty, plus two endorsement points on his licence, for what the stewards described as overtaking under the Safety Car.The incident occured when Sargeant and Nico Hulkenberg crossed Safety Car Line Two side-by-side while the Safety Car was deployed. The Haas driver was leaving the pits and Sargeant was approaching on the track as they reached the line, making it difficult to judge which was ahead.
It transpired Sargeant overtook Hulkenberg fractionally after they crossed the line. He did not realise this and his team was unable to tell he had done so, leading to his penalty.
“It was a harsh penalty, when you see just matters of tenths translate into seconds, that’s difficult,” said Vowles in a video released by the team. “More so, it’s very difficult for the driver to adjudicate whether he was ahead or behind.
“The responsibility falls to us and we missed it. We need to develop more and better automated tools that allow us to see what’s going on at that point because it took us multiple camera replays before even we could see where the difference was. From the onboards, which we have video for, you couldn’t tell who was ahead and who was behind.”
Vowles said the team accepts the penalty. “The way penalties work is when it’s in-race like that, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t appeal it. Once the penalty has been provided and given,it’s over effectively, it’s adjudicated by the FIA.
“Their adjudication was correct. We were behind at the line. Those are facts.”
He said the team will work on improving how it handles such cases in future. “What we have to do is improve our system and processes to make sure we catch that faster, because you can correct it.
“Logan would have to have slowed down during that initial incident, a few seconds later, let the car back through again, and then that would have corrected that position. It’s fine margins, but that’s what Formula 1 is all about.”
Sargeant’s radio messages from the end of the race
Sargeant’s race engineer Gaetan Jego did not tell him about his penalty until after the race had finished. The driver was convinced he had not broken a rule.
| Chequered flag | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sargeant | Why were we sticking with that tyre? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | We can talk when you get back. I didn’t talk to you because it was not really relevant but we had a 10-second time penalty. So… | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sargeant | For what? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | For, at the Safety Car we overtook Hulkenberg. I don’t have all the details. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sargeant | No I didn’t. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | Copy, we can review. But I think that’s why we got a 10-second. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sargeant | I passed the line ahead of him. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vowles | Logan we’ll go through here together. It was good race for Gasly today and it’s difficult circumstances but lots of learning which is mainly what we need. Let’s come back stronger in Miami together. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sargeant | Yeah copy. How did Alex do in the end? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vowles | He was 12th and he had five seconds to the points. Everyone at that Safety Car stayed out to the end. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kris
25th April 2024, 8:48
In plenty of other circumstances race control tell the teams to hand the place back.
In this instance race control should be able to tell teams who was ahead at the key point and to correct it without penalty.
Jere (@jerejj)
25th April 2024, 8:50
Race control has full responsibility in this matter as they didn’t bother ordering a position swap despite having multiple camera angles available to notice it immediately.
David
25th April 2024, 9:04
It was such a tight margin – imperceptible to the human eye – that race control should have informed the team to hand back the place.
Unless of course James Vowles reference to “systems” is that the human part of the system failed to pass a message on.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
25th April 2024, 22:15
I read your second paragraph as a joke but I fear there is more truth to that then they will ever admit.
tielemst
25th April 2024, 12:14
Harsh yes, correct no. As mentioned above, race control could have easily ordered the swap, and if for whatever reason it should be a penalty this surely cannot be a 2 point license penalty. Of all the parties involved the driver had no means to assess who was ahead an as such was right not to give up the place.
Mark (@blueruck)
25th April 2024, 12:46
Last year the teams asked that Race Control not call and suggest positions changes etc. The teams wanted to monitor themselves. This is a case of where in the past the call to Williams would have been made, case closed. Different rules now with new outcomes.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
25th April 2024, 15:58
To be clear, there’s nothing in the rule book which gives the stewards the power to order this. Teams can do it of their own choosing, but there is no ‘give back that position’ penalty.
It was done on an informal basis until quite recently, but there were several occasions where it started to cause complications and other problems, not least the farcical situation in Jeddah in 2021 when the race director (Michael Masi at the time) effectively ended up negotiating with Red Bull whether they surrendered a place or not.
S
25th April 2024, 16:34
The message from Masi was exactly what is written in the rules – Give the place/s back or risk a penalty.
Not farcical – however the reaction to it was way overblown (and still is).
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th April 2024, 9:30
Again, there was no such rule.
Donald F.
25th April 2024, 17:31
Don’t forget the myriad of times Hamilton cut numerous corners at various tracks and never gave the places back. No penalties for the golden child even when Max complained yet he would have to give it back. I look at Jeddah as Karma.
AlexS
25th April 2024, 22:25
How this can give 2 penalty points to Sergeant when he have no way to know if he was a millisecond behind or in front?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th April 2024, 2:09
because the stewards are ridiculous. They have no common sense, and the rule book is written by absent minded politicians who want more people in the stands.