Grid penalty rule “clarified” by the FIA

On the sidelines of the World Motor Sport Council, which was held in London on Wednesday, the FIA ​​announced a clarification in the rules concerning the application of penalties on the starting grid. Remember, at the Italian Grand Prix, several drivers received various penalties, notably for power unit changes. Stables and spectators then rebelled against the system in place, denouncing a lack of readability of the regulations. The starting grid then took many minutes – if not hours – before being published and made official. An incomprehensible situation which pushed the FIA ​​to change the application system.

An application of penalties in 5 steps

To simplify the reading of the Sporting Regulations concerning the constitution of the starting grid, article 42.2 has been modified and remodeled Here is the new system for applying penalties on the grid, in this order: 

a) Classified drivers who have received 15 cumulative places or less penalty on the grid will be allocated a temporary position corresponding to their qualifying ranking, to which the penalty will be added. If two or more drivers share the same temporary position, the order will be determined by their qualifying ranking, with the slowest driver retaining his place while the other will be positioned just ahead.

b) Once the temporary positions are allocated to penalize the pilots as specified in the point a), non-penalized drivers will be allocated any unoccupied grid position in the order of the qualifying standings.

c) Once the positions have been allocated to the non-penalized classified drivers, the penalized drivers to whom a temporary position had been allocated in accordance with point a) will move up the grid to take any unoccupied position.

d) Classified drivers having accumulated more than 15 penalty places on the grid, or being sanctioned with a return to the back of the grid, will start behind all other classified drivers. Their position between them will be determined by the qualifying ranking.

e) Unclassified drivers who have been authorized to participate in the Grand Prix by the stewards will inherit a position on the grid behind all classified drivers. Their position among themselves will be determined in accordance with Article 39.3 (b).

To summarize, the grid will be determined in three stages, with first the drivers having received ≤ 15 penalty places, then the drivers not having received a penalty, and finally the drivers relegated to the back of the grid. In the event of a tie regarding positions on the grid, it is the driver who completed qualifying with the best classification who has priority.

Thus, the FIA ​​hopes to make the location system on the starting grid more readable after application of penalties. The authorities will continue to publish the starting grid a few hours after the end of the qualifying session. 

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