The 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix discussion thread

[IceG]

Well that cock-up for Leclerc in Q3 summed up the Ferrari season.

[dr-baker]

Well that cock-up for Leclerc in Q3 summed up the Ferrari season.

Question is, will they cock up in the race, and if so, how?

[mario]

Well that cock-up for Leclerc in Q3 summed up the Ferrari season.

Question is, will they cock up in the race, and if so, how?

It seems that Ferrari managed to take the art of cocking up to new levels by finding a way to cock up before the race even began. They're now going to have to go to the stewards after the race to explain why they fuelled Leclerc with a "significantly different" amount of fuel to the amount they told the stewards they would be filling his car with. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferr ... t/4605298/

The double stacked pit stops during the race weren't exactly the cleverest idea either - they kind of got away with it, but it wasn't exactly a shining performance, was it?

[Paul Hayes]

Not the most thrilling end to a season we have ever had. Let's hope some of the signs and promises we've had this season of Ferrari and Red Bull being occasionally able to match and even beat Mercedes are fulfilled next year - it would be great to see a real three-way fight.

I won't hold my breath, though...

[dr-baker]

Well that cock-up for Leclerc in Q3 summed up the Ferrari season.

Question is, will they cock up in the race, and if so, how?

It seems that Ferrari managed to take the art of cocking up to new levels by finding a way to cock up before the race even began. They're now going to have to go to the stewards after the race to explain why they fuelled Leclerc with a "significantly different" amount of fuel to the amount they told the stewards they would be filling his car with. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferr ... t/4605298/

The double stacked pit stops during the race weren't exactly the cleverest idea either - they kind of got away with it, but it wasn't exactly a shining performance, was it?

It may not exactly have been the cleverest idea, but it did seem inevitable that they would mess up, didn't it...

[Rob Dylan]

The race has been over for a few hours now and I've still not heard back on the Leclerc incident. Seems a bit crazy that after all this time they would still DSQ him, and not have done this a long time ago.

[Fetzie]

Yeah, I don't see what the problem is.

If the fuel loaded was not the same as the fuel reported by the team, disqualify him
If the fuel loaded was as reported, don't.

Surely this is just a case of "see if the numbers are the same". Given that they knew about this before the race started, they had the opportunity to step in before it started. If you really want Leclerc to start at any cost, let him do so from the pitlane. Still to be waiting for the decision 4-5 hours after the discrepancy was found is just ridiculous.

[CaptainGetz12]

And of course Kvyat beats Hulkenberg in a tie-breaker on points. Kvyat has 1 podium to Hulk's zero.

[Nuppiz]

These just in:

Ferrari got a 50k € fine but Leclerc retains P3.

DRS failure was caused by a data server crash.

[rachel1990]

These just in:

Ferrari got a 50k € fine but Leclerc retains P3.

Well that was a waste of time all round then. My reject of the race still stands though because this could have been resolved a lot sooner and or Ferrari should not have cocked this up in the first place...

[mario]

Yeah, I don't see what the problem is.

If the fuel loaded was not the same as the fuel reported by the team, disqualify him
If the fuel loaded was as reported, don't.

Surely this is just a case of "see if the numbers are the same". Given that they knew about this before the race started, they had the opportunity to step in before it started. If you really want Leclerc to start at any cost, let him do so from the pitlane. Still to be waiting for the decision 4-5 hours after the discrepancy was found is just ridiculous.

Well, we've finally got the answer, as Nuppiz notes, and it's a fine for breaching the International Sporting Code. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferr ... i/4605497/

Ferrari had 4.88kg more fuel on board Leclerc's car than they had originally declared, which broke a Technical Directive - this article was written at the time when the Directive was introduced.

Part of the confusion seems to come because the FIA have, rather confusingly, split the fuel requirements over at least three different sets of documents - Technical Regulations, Sporting Regulations and Technical Directives.

Leclerc does not seem to have used more fuel than he was permitted to over the race distance, so he hasn't broken the Sporting Regulations which that Directive referred to (the maximum fuel allowance is part of the Sporting Regulations instead of the Technical Regulations).

Ferrari also didn't officially breach the Technical Regulations either, which covers aspects such as the minimum fuel required for a sample. The only thing they have broken is the Technical Directive and that Directive is, technically, an extension of the International Sporting Code - the ISC is part of the administrative side of the sport, setting out how a race weekend should be run.

[dr-baker]

I suppose it took so long because this case was the first of its type and they had no previous examples to refer back to, so having to set a precedent?

[Pacific Edge]

50k Euros? Maranello can find that down the side of a couch, and Formula1.com described it as a "big" fine.

[yannicksamlad]

On the fuel check- I suppose they had to run a calculation of how much fuel was recorded as being used in the race , as well , to see how much was mis-declared..
I can see it might be quite complicated .

Personally given the complexity of the rules, I dont mind them taking a while to get things right. One of the problems with football comes from it being too easy to break the rules and get away with it. It was undermining things so much that they had to get in video evidence....

Shame Hulkenberg lost out to his team-mate on the last lap - he was just going to beat him. And I think that would have been a fairer representation of his pace compared to some of the races he's had the Renault version of the 'Ferrari No 2's strategy (" we dont think this is optimal, but let's use the No 2 to find out ")'

I enjoyed the race ..