Doriane Pin penalised for failing to notice F1 Academy race in Saudi Arabia was over; French driver handed 20-second penalty and drops to ninth with Britains Abbi Pulling elevated to winner; Sky Sports F1s Damon Hill criticises decision, saying lights should also indicate end of race
Pitwall crew taking off the headphones and celebrating, rather than radioing the driver as usual is Ferrari-level amateurism.
Fully agree with Damon.
We looked at it in the live show, we were shocked the lights/flags did not signal anything. Also, the finish flag is oddly located, is easily missed and might have come out too late.
Saying the flag is in a odd place is irrelevant. It might appear to be in the wrong place according to Damon but the drivers should all be aware where it is from the race briefing.
Sure, she should have been aware. A reprimand or penalty is correct. But that is not the point. Because she missed it, a potential hazardous situation occurred and there was no other indication to stop the danger than this single flag.
This was a situation that was not foreseen because in F1 radio-messages and fireworks will indicate to the driver that the race is over. In F1Academy this is different. Pit-crew/FIA/stewards must also learn from this and can for example wave the white flag for ‘last lap’, and use the start lights and position lights to indicate ‘track closing’. Or wave blue flags all around the track for the winner and everybody behind.
Meh, it’s the same in every feeder series: the team and the driver are responsible for knowing when the race ends. It happens very rarely that a driver misses it. But it’s not the first time ever either.
FIA could change this and have the stewards wave a certain flag throughout the whole track after checkered flag.
Sky Sports F1’s Damon Hill was critical of the decision, writing on social media platform X: “Maybe they should indicate the end of the race with lights too, instead of just waving a flag about 20ft up in a blind spot. Maybe? I’m not an expert. Oh! Yes I am!”
lol
I still blame the engineers. At least say “congrats! you are first” or something.
A greater penalty for this than for offenses like brake testing, causing a crash, or an unsafe release. The FIA is a fucking joke.
I know F1 fans need to get their daily Fuck the FIA. But you cannot be serious.
Driving at racing speed on a track considered not live, with the potential of marshalls and other track staff on the other side of the barriers. Is generally frowned upon.
Intentional wrecking is also harshly punished. There’s a reason you don’t see it outside the very low levels.
Magnusson got a ten second penalty and three points. Perez may have “only” gotten five seconds and one point. But both of these incidents happened on a live track during a race session.
Trying to make any connection between the penalties is a pointless endeavour.
That said, aren’t all the marshals waving flags after the race is finished? If so, that would mean she is ignoring them, or was that not the case here?
Wasn’t the case here. Due to the crappy position of the person waving the chequered flag, and her team not giving her info, she had no way to know the race had ended unless she was accurately counting laps from the start.
Hey, at least jokes make people laugh. This is just another instance of the FIA being a cancer to the sport. Worst of all is that I’m not even sure any amount of anti-corruption drive will fix errors like this that are just straight up idiocy at its, uh…“finest”. Between the FIA and Formula 1, open-wheel racing is really not having a good start to the year.
Wait…how would she not know. It’s 50/50 on her and her crew. But fully a shitshow.
She heard nothing from her race engineer and the flag waving is often difficult to see. It’s actually pretty common for drivers not to know exactly how many laps are left without being reminded.
Damon Hill said that he thinks the lights are the starting grid should also be used to signal the end of a race, and tbh that seems pretty logical.
It’s actually pretty common for drivers not to know exactly how many laps are left without being reminded
Can she look at her steering wheel for race info?
It’s not what the wheels display. Not even sure if the F1A cars have a Display. They show more general car information and laptime data.
It’s actually pretty common for drivers not to know exactly how many laps are left without being reminded.
until you approach the end of the race. even if the engineers didn’t proactively mention it she should have been asking them.
even if the engineers didn’t proactively mention it she should have been asking them.
She did. Even the broadcast played her question of how many laps are left but the pitwall crew didn’t reply.
yikes, massive engineering fail then.
Her team really dropped the ball on this one.
how would she not know.
By pushing for fastest lap which she didn’t have until the very last lap and the pitwall taking off their headphones and high-fiving rather than communicating.
What a farce
What a cool looking trophy! Are there any good photos/videos showing all sides of the trophy? I found enough random shots to see it’s more complex than it appears at first glance but I’d be interested in more details if anyone knows where to find info.
Thanks!
