Formula 1 Australian GP
Stroll says he 'doesn't get' Australian GP F1 weaving penalty
Lance Stroll has questioned what he called the “funny decisions” being made by the FIA Formula 1 race director and stewards after being penalised for weaving during the Australian Grand Prix.
Adam Cooper
Edited: Apr 12, 2022, 7:59 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Aston Martin driver was reported for making "more than one change of direction to defend a position" while battling with Valtteri Bottas.
After an investigation he received a five-second penalty and a penalty point on his FIA superlicence. The penalty did not change his finishing position of 12th place.
Race control also looked at Stroll's move to pass Bottas when the virtual safety car period ended, when it was suggested that he'd forced the Alfa driver off the road, but no action was taken on the incident.
Earlier in the weekend he received a three-place grid penalty and two penalty points following a collision with Nicholas Latifi in qualifying, although his starting position was not impacted as he hadn't set a lap time.
In the summary of the weaving incident the stewards made it clear that Stroll had made more than the permitted single move: "On the main straight, Car 18 [Stroll] was ahead of Car 77 [Bottas]. Stroll moved right to defend against a potential overtake from Bottas.
"Stroll returned to the racing line and then moved to the right for a second time to defend from another move by Bottas. The second move breaches the regulation which prohibits more than one change of direction to defend a position."
Stroll made it clear that he didn't understand why he was penalised.
"I don't get it," he said when asked about the incident by Motorsport.com. "It was two guys weaving all the time, it's just the last move really.
"You can weave down the straight as long as you don't weave when the guy's approaching very close behind you. I'm weaving to try and break the slipstream, not to try and defend, and then they penalise me for it. I don't get it.
"I guess a lot of funny decisions going on right now."
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR22, Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo C42, Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT03
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Regarding his opportunistic move on Bottas he said: "On the edge, yeah. He was sleeping on the restart, the virtual safety car restart, so I caught him sleeping. I thought that was good racing.
"The penalty, I mean it's annoying to get penalised, because I don't really understand their reasoning behind it, but it didn't change our final position because we had more than five seconds to the car in P13 or whatever.
"It's always nice to be fighting in the quicker car that's attacking rather than defending, but we tried our best, just didn't really have the pace to pick up points."
Stroll has now picked up eight penalty points within a 12-month period.
Read Also:
- F1 drivers admit loss of DRS zone hurt overtaking in Australian GP
- How Ferrari and Red Bull calls led to Leclerc’s Melbourne masterclass
- Verstappen: F1 must speed up "turtle" Aston Martin safety car
Asked about the risk of a race ban, his team boss Mike Krack acknowledged that the new race directors Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas have a strict approach.
"I think we need to learn how the new race directors and how they govern it," said the Luxembourger. "We learned a little bit in the hard way at the moment.
"We will keep it under control. I mean, we had two points yesterday, we had one point today. Obviously when the car is not as it as you want it, then the drivers try as much as possible to defend.
"I think it's a combination of [that and] maybe new ways of governance, but that would be too easy to say. I think if we had a better car we will not have these issues."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Verstappen: No clear fix for Red Bull's early season F1 issues
Next article F1 drivers admit loss of DRS zone hurt overtaking in Australian GP
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Apr 10, 2024
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1 Apr 10, 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1 Apr 10, 2024
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Lance Stroll
Honda struggling to explain Lance Stroll’s 13th DNF of the season
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
3 d
Honda struggling to explain Lance Stroll’s 13th DNF of the season
"Unacceptable downshifts" – Max Verstappen explains what's behind a recurring F1 radio complaint
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
7 d
"Unacceptable downshifts" – Max Verstappen explains what's behind a recurring F1 radio complaint
Latest news
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
5 h
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
6 h
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 10 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe