Formula 1 has arrived in Monaco and the anticipation for Saturday is palpable. For many fans and drivers, the battle for pole position between the guard rails on the legendary street circuit is one of the best hours of the year. If it weren’t for those red flags. And above all, drivers who profit from their own accidents.
The problem is age-old in Monaco. Because qualifying practically decides the race, it is more tempting than ever to make a “mistake”. Or you can actually make a mistake. Either way, a single driver can completely ruin Saturday for several of his colleagues. Many other racing series therefore cancel the lap times of those who cause yellow or red flags. Not so in Formula 1.
Carlos Sainz raises suspicions: repeated intention to cause accidents
Of course, when this topic comes to mind, many people think of Michael Schumacher’s deliberate parking in Rascasse in 2006. At the time, all of his lap times were only deleted after a lengthy stewards’ investigation. But not every incident is so obvious that a stewards’ investigation would come to this conclusion. “There are very clear cases on street circuits where we drivers have seen people deliberately triggering red flags,” criticizes Carlos Sainz.
“And in these cases, the FIA may not have been so convinced of the intention, but we as drivers know what is intentional and what is not,” believes Sainz. The drivers are therefore demanding an automatic mechanism as a preventive measure: trigger a stoppage and you lose your best time. Without an investigation, intention is irrelevant.
“That’s how it should be,” says Sergio Perez. “We’ve been putting pressure on this for a few years, but nothing seems to be coming of it.” He doesn’t know why. The topic came up again in a few of the last driver briefings with the FIA race management.
Numerous advocates for new qualifying rule
“We’re constantly losing laps in qualifying because of track limits,” says drivers’ union director George Russell, who sees no problem with the idea. He, as well as world champion Max Verstappen, are among the advocates of the idea, and there are quite a few of them in the paddock before Monaco on Thursday.
In fact, as Perez noted, the issue has been present in rule discussions for a long time. Charles Leclerc secured his Monaco pole in 2021 with an accident in the second swimming pool chicane. Sergio Perez spun in Portier in 2022 and thus remained on the starting grid ahead of Max Verstappen. The last incident caused a scandal months later when accusations circulated that Perez had crashed intentionally.
As early as the end of 2022, the topic of automatically deleted laps was at least addressed in the F1 Commission, where rule changes are arranged in advance by teams, the FIA and F1 management. Ultimately, however, there was no change. It is not the only dirty F1 trick. We have listed four questionable ones here: