The FIA expands the grid positions
For this Grand Prix weekend in Australia, the FIA has decided to widen the spaces on the starting grid, in order to avoid new penalties like the ones suffered by Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
In Melbourne, a small innovation will appear on the starting grids: the spaces will be widened by 20 cm and a central line will be added to better guide the car’s nose. This decision comes after two penalties were imposed for wrong positions in the first two races, on Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
The FIA has therefore reacted and hopes to put an end to the controversy. The drivers were complaining about not being able to see the line from their seat.
Alonso mixed on these decisions
Fernando Alonso, one of the victims of these poor grid placements, believes that this widening will help the drivers better position themselves on the starting grid. The 20 centimeters will help, I suppose, even though there will be circuits like Monaco or Imola where you start a bit off to the side anyway because otherwise you crash if you go straight ahead, says the Spaniard. He hopes that this change will prevent further penalties in the future. I think the FIA doesn’t want any trouble with this, because there is no performance advantage as long as you don’t go too far forward. So yes, I hope we will avoid anything from now on.
However, he believes that the introduction of a central line will not change much, as the drivers already look to the side to position themselves well: « It’s difficult and we are very focused on the yellow line to avoid going too far. Because you approach the box by looking to the side, so you are not looking forward. That is the biggest challenge,” Alonso concludes.
For Esteban Ocon, penalized in Bahrain for an incorrect positioning, these changes won’t change anything and he predicts new penalties to come. “It’s because we can’t see anything from where we are seated,” explains the Frenchman. “We have worked a lot with my team to try to lower me in the car, to have a lower position.” The Alpine driver acknowledges his mistake in Bahrain but foresees new penalties of the same kind. “We were obviously outside of the rules, so we deserve the penalty. But yes, there will be many more penalized cars this year, that’s for sure,” predicts the Alpine driver.
