66,000 euros fine and 4-race suspension for Santino Ferrucci
For an incredible series of maneuvers on his own teammate, American driver Santino Ferrucci has been suspended for the two weekends in Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps. He will also be required to pay a 66,000 euro fine.
This is unprecedented in the history of GP2/F2: a driver has managed to get himself suspended for two consecutive weekends. This is the remarkable performance achieved by Santino Ferrucci.
The reason? Deliberately crashing into his teammate during the deceleration lap at the end of the Sprint race! Arjun Maini, who had previously made waves with a surreal radio communication following the French Grand Prix, was questioning the mental health of the second Trident driver!
But instead of going to make amends with his team and especially with the commissioners, the driver protected by Haas simply decided not to be accountable and therefore did not attend his summons. Especially since he was also summoned for having forced the same Arjun Maini off the track a bit earlier in the race.
For his entire work, the commissioners decided to exclude him from the race (which he had finished in 14th place) and, above all, to prohibit him from participating in the weekends scheduled in Budapest as well as at Spa-Francorchamps at the end of August. To top it all off, he was fined 60,000 euros.
However, the bill doesn’t stop there as he was found guilty of a third offense, this one even more unbelievable than the previous ones. Indeed, to reach the starting grid of the race (located at the other end of the track from the F2 paddock at Silverstone), he decided to wear only one glove and, more importantly, to keep his mobile phone in hand! This amounted to violating the sporting regulations (non-compliance with driver safety equipment) and technical regulations (prohibition of having a data-transmitting object inside the cockpit). This led to an additional 6,000 euros in fines!
In this context, it seems unlikely that Haas will choose to keep a driver with such a “record” in its development program. It is not even guaranteed that Trident will take him back for Monza and the rest of the season, as the team specifies in a statement: « Trident intends to show its solidarity and support to Arjun Maini and his family after the unsportsmanlike and wild behavior he had to endure this past weekend, not only from Santino Ferrucci but also from the latter’s father who accompanied him. The contractual obligations of what happened today will be reviewed by our lawyers. We have never experienced anything like this in 12 years of sporting activities. We apologize for this unfortunate spectacle. »
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
