What Is FIA’s Clever Rule Change Which Landed Charles Leclerc & Carlos Sainz in Hot Water at the Italian Grand Prix?

With the Italian GP taking place, everyone expects the Ferrari to be the car on pole. However, it looks like another error from the Ferrari boys will prevent that from happening. Carlos Sainz topped the timing sheets in both FP2 and FP3 and looked set to challenge for the pole. Charles Leclerc wasn’t behind by much and is definitely in the mix. But a new clever rule change by the FIA has put the Ferrari boys Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in hot water at Monza. What is this rule?

Earlier before the start of the FP3, a notification was released for the teams informing them that the maximum lap time around a lap was set at 1:41:000. This was to prevent the cars from excessively slowing down and putting the cars on the hot lap under risk. However, it looks like Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are both going to be guilty of breaking this rule, that too in Q1.

During the final runs in Q1 where under the new qualifying rule, every car was on hard tires, the Ferraris have been noted for breaching the maximum lap time rule. The field was compressed with everyone wanting a tow. However, it isn’t yet known what the punishment might be for the Ferrari boys if they are found guilty. 

Read More: “Dreams Cost Nothing”: Realistic Carlos Sainz Demolishes Tifosi Hope Despite Being the Fastest in Practice Session

The rule was set by FIA after seeing what happened during the F3 and F2 qualifying sessions where cars slowed and stacked up behind each other to get the tow. This crawling pace has been a problem for a long time at the Monza GP.

Oscar Piastri recalls having nightmares about the slipstreaming greed at Monza

The greed for a slipstream at Monza has been going on for as long as we can remember. However, the year 2019 comes to mind when many cars didn’t even make it to the final lap because of the slow pace. Oscar Piastri talks about the 2020 F3 season where a similar condition caused Red Flags. This year during the F2 qualifying many cars weren’t able to make it to the final hot lap as well.

Piastri recalled his time in F3 when the session was red-flagged as this greed for slipstream caused dangerous conditions. “Getting a slipstream in qualifying is important. I’ve got nightmares of my F3 days of a red flag in qualifying sessions from people trying to get tows,” said Oscar Piastri.

What do you think about the maximum lap time rule set by the FIA?

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