Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has asked for Formula 1 to enforce its rule forbidding drivers from dropping their visor tear-offs outside the car.
Charles pointed out that a new rule is needed after the events which took place last weekend at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, when his race was largely compromised when a tear-off dropped by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ended up in his brake duct. This meant the Monegasque driver had to pit immediately after just two laps of the race due to his brake overheating. The Ferrari man admitted that a driver “cannot calculate” where a tear-off is likely to land after it is dropped.
“Obviously I’m not angry at all with Max. It’s obviously not the fault of the drivers. But we might look at something to find a way to keep the tear-offs somewhere in the car.” – Charles Leclerc said, ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver and Max Verstappen started last weekend’s race from the second part of the grid due to taking penalties for using new power unit components at Spa. Several cars ran wide at the start, throwing up dirt and dust, while the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was damaged and began leaking fluid.
As a result, a few drivers needed to remove their tear-offs in order to improve their vision, and Charles Leclerc was the unlucky one who could not avoid picking one of them up as he was driving behind the Dutchman:
“It would be good [if] we can maybe find a solution to have the tear-off inside the car. Because in this particular situation, I think somebody was losing oil or something and I could not see anything with my visor. All the drivers in front of me couldn’t see anything in the visors. It happened that at the first opportunity we had to take off the tear-off, it was in this straight. So I found myself with tear-offs flying all over the place and in that case, you cannot do much as a driver.” – he explained.
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The International Sporting Code states that tear-offs “may not be thrown unnecessarily onto the track or the pit lane”, which in theory makes it a punishable action. However, until now, removing tear-offs to improve vision and throwing them on the track has never attracted the attention of the stewards. The FIA did briefly talk about this matter seven years ago, but eventually backed down, not being able to identify a better option for keeping used tear-offs within the cockpit.
“I guess there were reasons why this rule was [dropped] which I’m not aware of. But maybe there was other solutions. I don’t know.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded.
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