Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had a scary moment in the qualifying session that saw him take a second consecutive pole position in Monaco. Towards the end of Q2 the Ferrari driver was called for a weight check, but he did not see the signal and continued along the pit lane and then stopped shortly before reaching the Ferrari garage.
If he had reached the lay-by and the mechanics had worked on his car, even just to change tires, this would have been enough to earn him a penalty. The Ferrari pit wall immediately noticed that Charles Leclerc had misted the FIA weighbridge and informed the driver to stop, sending the mechanics into the lane to push the F1-75 number 16 back to the area dedicated to controls.
At the end of the qualifying session, Charles Leclerc admitted that he had absolutely not seen the signal and did not even know where he was positioned.
“It’s very complicated because I don’t even know where the panel is placed, right or left. But it’s very far away and when you enter the pits you don’t look in that direction. I didn’t actually realize I was called for being weighed, but luckily the team warned me to stop and the guys pushed me back. Also in this case we managed to get out of a difficult situation.” – Charles explained.
Formula 1 rules are pretty strict when it comes to drivers who don’t show up for the weighbridge procedure and teams that work on the cars.
At the 2019 Baku GP, Pierre Gasly was forced to start from the pit lane after missing a weight check in practice and after his team, at the time Red Bull, had worked on his car. The same penalty was applied to Sergio Perez in the United States Grand Prix of the same year.
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The F1 rules are very clear on this. Article 35.1 b) states: “Any driver who does not stop when asked to do so and does not return the car to the FIA garage, or if work is carried out on the car before it is returned to the FIA garage, will be referred to the stewards. In the event of violation of the procedure relating to the weighing of cars, the stewards may impose a grid penalty as they deem appropriate or disqualify the driver from the sprint session or the race”.
What we saw yesterday with Charles Leclerc is nothing new. The layout of the Monaco pitlane, in fact, does not make it easy for the drivers to see the illuminated panel. Already in 2019 the Monegasque, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg had missed the weighbridge for not having seen the sign.
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