Following a series of contentious overtaking maneuvers during the United States Grand Prix F1 Sprint at the Circuit of the Americas and the main event on Sunday, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari has come to the defense of the FIA, arguing that it is unrealistic to create a rulebook that can account for every possible scenario.
Max Verstappen, starting from second place on the grid, adopted an aggressive strategy at the race’s outset, nudging his championship competitor Lando Norris wide at Turn 1, which allowed Charles Leclerc to slip past and take the lead of the United States Grand Prix despite starting from fourth place.
Although Max Verstappen managed to maintain second place after the chaotic first corner, he eventually lost that position to Carlos Sainz during the pit stops, as the Ferrari driver opted for an earlier stop than his main rivals, taking advantage of the strong pace of the SF-24 car in Austin.
In the race’s closing laps, Lando Norris began to catch up with Max Verstappen, who was struggling with his worn tyres. Despite having six laps older tyres, the defending champion executed a brilliant defense, repelling the McLaren driver’s advances lap after lap. However, Lando Norris eventually succeeded in passing Max Verstappen in the run-off area at Turn 12, an overtaking move that later resulted in a five-second penalty for him.
Reflecting on the contentious overtaking incidents, Carlos Sainz shared his thoughts: “I think some things are. Others are still a bit blurry to me, let’s put it like that. I think there was an example yesterday with Oscar’s overtake. That for me was completely fine and very similar to anything that we’ve done between each other on the sprint. And I felt like the penalty on Oscar yesterday was really, really harsh and didn’t go along with some guidelines that I thought were the way they were. So yeah, that penalty surprised me yesterday. About today, I have no clue because I haven’t seen, I haven’t gone five seconds by five seconds penalty to see. So let’s see.” – the future Williams driver explained.
When asked to share his thoughts on the penalties, Charles Leclerc, an eight-time Formula 1 race winner, expressed his perspective: “I agree with Carlos on Oscar’s penalty yesterday. I also thought it was a bit too harsh. However, on the rules, I think they are clear. Sometimes the interpretation of the rule can be a little bit different because it will be impossible to have a rule book that takes every single scenario. Every scenario is different, has its particularity, and you’ve got to analyse it in a different way and interpret the rules in some ways for particular scenarios, which is what the FIA is trying to do best. However, sometimes we disagree, and I think on the one of yesterday, it’s something that we’ll probably talk of in the next driver briefing,” – the Monegasque driver concluded.
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