The drivers do not want penalties in Q3
The Singapore Grand Prix qualifying highlighted a recurring issue this year.
Some drivers qualified in Q3 do not bother to leave their pit to complete a final qualifying lap.
They are therefore not credited with any time in this session, but they remain nevertheless in the top ten positions on the grid.
The FIA would like to address this issue by forcing all drivers to complete at least one timed qualifying lap in Q3. The governing body of Formula 1 would like to impose a penalty on drivers who do not follow this rule.
These people do not share the same opinion, and Mark Webber makes it known: I think the question is entirely fair, but I think the penalty is not appropriate. It is not fair to penalize drivers who are trying to achieve a good performance on Sunday. Fundamentally, if we were all short on tires, all the drivers would go out and try to fight on the track.
This weekend, the Force India cars and Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes did not take part in the fight during Q3… a practice that has become more common this year in order to preserve an additional set of new tires for Sunday’s race.
McLaren driver, Jenson Button, supports Mark Webber in his reasoning by explaining that nothing could be done until the regulations are changed: « You cannot penalize drivers for not racing unless there is a change in regulation. Until there is one, it will remain like this, especially on an urban circuit. But I think you will never see the fast cars doing that… »
To avoid this situation, Pirelli proposed introducing tires reserved for qualifying, to force all drivers to take to the track without the fear of using a set of tires that might fail them during the race.
Sebastian Vettel understands the reaction of some teams on this subject and thinks that if more tires were available, everyone would be on the track in Q3: «”Obviously, for some teams, their main goal is to reach Q3, and sometimes, when they get there, they then don’t have enough tires to defend their chances… I think that’s the real problem. »
The issue of the number of tire allocations per Grand Prix for each team remains the crux of the problem.
