Leclerc Penalty At The Japan Grand Prix Twice As Painful For Ferrari

Leclerc Penalty Japan Implications Going Forward

The danger came when Leclerc was really starting to drop carbon fiber after that first lap. The lack of firmness from the FIA left room for Ferrari to make the judgement call to leave him out. Leclerc should take some of this responsibility. As the pilot, he’ll be reasonable aware of losing parts. He’ll be keenly aware of whether the car is compromised. To that point, Leclerc was saying the pace and aerodynamics were fine. But Ferrari should have called him in – and the FIA should have been more firm.

As a result, Leclerc was deemed “predominantly” as the at fault party by the FIA at fault for the lap 1 incident with Max Verstappen.  They handed down a five-second time penalty. He was also given two penalty points on his license for unsafe driving.

Due to the negligence he and Ferrari showed of grid safety allowing debris to spread on the track, he was awarded another 10-second time penalty. His team were fined €25,000. This took him from 6th place to 7th place. 

Regardless of the FIA stepping in, this rhetoric implies that Ferrari care more about their speed than they do the safety of their driver, other team performance, fans should debris spray out, and other driver’s safety. They see the carbon fiber flying off and choose not to pit because the pace was relatively uncompromised. Mattia Binotto’s words after the race were particular frightening as it relates to external considerations.

What happened is we got the damage and Charles is the one who is driving and can feel the car, and how it behaves. From outside we saw the wing was broken so it would have needed to be changed at some stage.

He still had the right pace, stayed out, but then the FIA asked us to come in for safety reasons and we immediately accepted the decision.

The stewards realized maybe we should have come in earlier and we have been penalized for that as well.

He is trying to imply that Ferrari are victim of the FIA in hindsight – which is objectively irrational at best. Ferrari got punished for allowing an unsafe situation unfold with their driver, plain and simple. The FIA forcing you to come in to check if your car is safe is a poor standard to live up to in the world of Formula 1. Two things can be true at once:

1. The FIA should have been more forthright in calling Leclerc in.
2. Ferrari should have been responsible and focused on the safety of the grid as a whole than just their own results.

Just because it may sacrifice part of your race doesn’t you get the right to sacrifice the lives and races of other drivers. This situation will set the benchmark, in my estimation, of a more firm FIA. They have shown that not only can drivers walk all over them knowing they will be bailed out, but teams are now taking advantage of a looser FIA.

For those who want a less strict FIA, you seem to be missing the fact that they are there not for safety, but to ensure the selfish nature of constructors and drivers alike don’t reign supreme. If everyone cares first and foremost about their results, that only lasts so long before two interests with opposing motivations meet. There plenty of F1 news to prove that – in particular from the Japanese Grand Prix It just happened in Japan and we’re lucky Lewis or Lando were injured in a severe way.