F1 News: AlphaTauri CEO Reminds Ferrari That All Teams Voted Against "Force Majeure" Clause
While Ferrari was disappointed with a lack of force majeure in the penalty rules after Carlos Sainz's Ferrari needed a new battery and power unit when his car hit one of the drain hole covers in the Las Vegas GP's FP1, AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer reminded the Red team that “it was the F1 teams” who voted against the clause.
Sainz was charged with a 10-place grid drop penalty for replacing the battery and other major parts in his SF-23, exceeding the allocated amount. Ferrari requested the stewards treat the case as an exception, considering that the incident was neither the fault of the driver nor of the team.
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However, the stewards denied Ferrari's request, citing that it was beyond their powers to treat the incident as an exception since the regulations were clear that no force majeure exemption could be allowed. The statement from the stewards read:
“Notwithstanding the fact that the damage was caused by highly unusual external circumstances, Article 2.1 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations obliges all officials, including the stewards, to apply the regulations as they are written.
“Accordingly, the mandatory penalty specified under Article 28.3 of the Sporting Regulations must be applied.”
The stewards also added that if they “had the authority to grant a derogation in what they consider in this case to be mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances, they would have done so, however, the regulations do not allow such action.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was left very angry in a press conference where he expressed that the incident was "unacceptable." Sainz meanwhile was surprised that there was no provision in the rules that would allow the governing body to overrule the regulations. He added:
“I think I’m surprised that the governing body does have the power to, in cases of force majeure, let’s say, overrule a bit in this kind of situation where it’s so clear that is something that is completely out of the team’s control and completely out of the driver’s control.”
The Team Opposed Force Majeure
However, AlphaTauri CEO Bayer reminded Ferrari that it was the teams who opposed a force majeure with the fear of opening the "Pandora's box." He told Motorsport.com:
“Having been on the other side we had plenty of discussion on whether should we have that sort of force majeure clause.
“And, in fact, it was the F1 teams in their drive to perfection and but also their absolute maximised paranoia that they thought that if somebody would be able to trigger force majeure, that person will have a lot of power because a lot of people would probably claim force majeure on many occasions.
“Which is why they said, ‘Let’s not open Pandora’s box’. But having said that, honestly, in this case, if we would have been asked as a team, we would have supported Ferrari. It’s really not their fault.”
However, the case will be the topic of discussion at the upcoming F1 Commission meeting in Abu Dhabi.
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