Aston Martin wants explanations after Sainz’s qualifying incident

Aston Martin contested the result of the qualifying session in Shanghai, after Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) made it back to Q2 after going off the track. Sainz remained stationary for 77 seconds after hitting the wall coming out of the last corner, but the Spaniard managed to get going again and qualify for Q3 at the expense of Aston Martin driver, Lance Stroll.

Aston has decided to challenge the results based on article 39.6 of the Formula 1 sporting regulations, which states that: « Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or qualifying sprint session will not be allowed to further participate in that session ». The stewards dismissed the protest because it was clear, from previous instances, that the rule was only intended for cars rejoining a qualifying session after receiving external assistance from track officials or recovery vehicles, while Sainz continued under his own power.

But the incident reopened a discussion on the need to clarify the rules, as it had been previously agreed that the element of external assistance should be added to article 39.6, even though the amendment was not integrated into the 2024 sports regulations. « It is simply a matter of clarifying things and, ultimately, there have been many discussions with the stewards and we must respect the decisions they have reached », explained Tom McCullough, Performance Director at Aston Martin.

A clarification requested

But let’s hope that this will be clarified and become less ambiguous in the future, as it is quite clearly stated in the messaging system that the car has stopped. This article states that this car was not supposed to continue participating in the qualifications. So, this will be clarified in the future », details McCullough to Autosport.

The team director of Ferrari, Fred Vasseur, agreed that explicit clarification is welcome to avoid any further confusion, emphasizing that F1 sporting regulations have become increasingly complex. « I don’t know if it’s clear, but we certainly need to understand what happened », Vasseur said.

We asked the race director if we could restart, he said yes, end of story. We need to define the situation exactly. When I started working, the sporting regulations were 20 pages long, today, it’s 75. We are all trying to find a loophole and the regulations are now becoming more and more complicated, but on this one, we will find an easy clarification.

McCullough revealed that Aston’s longtime sports director, Andy Stevenson, immediately reported the potential rule violation once Sainz’s car stopped on the track. “Andy is sitting next to me on the pit wall and he knows the regulations inside out, he’s like an encyclopedia. He’s been here for so long,” McCullough said. “As soon as it appeared on the official messaging system that a car had stopped, he said bang, article 39.6, he can’t rejoin the track. We were a bit surprised, that’s why we protested.”