Racing series are often at pains to avoid changing results after the chequered flag falls – especially when it comes to naming a new winner.
But although the 2024 motorsport season is still young, five drivers have already lost victories due to post-race stewards’ decisions.
Are over-zealous officials needlessly robbing drivers of deserved wins? Or are these five unconnected and justified decisions?
Josef Newgarden
IndyCar, Grand Prix of St Petersburg
When Josef Newgarden stormed to victory in the opening race of the new IndyCar season, it looked like a declaration of intent by the two-times champion for the campaign ahead. Then came last week’s shocking news.
Over six weeks after the chequered flag dropped on the season-opener, IndyCar announced Newgarden and Penske team mate Scott McLaughlin (originally third) had been disqualified for using their push-to-pass systems when they were supposed to be disabled. The push-to-pass systems were unlawfully enabled on all three Penske cars, but Will Power escaped disqualification because he hadn’t activated his outside of the prescribed times.
Had this happened in F1, there’s a good chance all three would have had the same sanction. Non-compliance with the technical regulations in the world championship almost invariably leads to disqualification.
Even so, by IndyCar’s standards, the penalties were arguably stiff: Other drivers have failed technical inspections yet kept their wins, notably Justin Wilson at Texas in 2012 (non-compliant parts) and Sebastien Bourdais at Milwaukee in 2015 (underweight).
But there was arguably a political dimension to this case. Those past wins were rare triumphs by underdog teams. Had IndyCar been that lenient on Penske – not merely a powerhouse operation but the team of series owner Roger Penske – the uproar would have been greater still.
Richard Verschoor
Formula 2, Jeddah Corniche Circuit sprint race
Penske’s error allegedly involved the use of software devised for testing the series’ forthcoming hybrid power units. A software error also cost Richard Verschoor victory in the third race for Formula 2’s new cars.
After his win, the stewards discovered the team had used an outdated 2023-specification throttle pedal progressivity map, which determines how much power is delivered as the driver presses the accelerator. Both Tridents were using the old map and therefore had to be disqualified. Dennis Hauger inherited victory from Verschoor.
While cars’ physical dimensions have been governed by the rules for years, restrictions on software specifications is a more recent addition to the regulations, and gives teams another challenge to master.
Other teams have also run into technical trouble with the new cars. Invicta’s Kush Maini lost pole position for the first feature race of the year when an undertray strake failed its inspection after qualifying.
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Doriane Pin
F1 Academy, Jeddah Corniche Circuit race two
Verschoor wasn’t the only driver in one of the support categories to lose a win during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend. Doriane Pin dominated proceedings in the opening round of the F1 Academy championship, leading every single lap, but only got to keep one of her two wins.
Pin led Abbi Pulling to the line by just under two seconds in the second race. But while Pulling backed off and cruised in after taking the chequered flag, Pin remained flat out and completed another lap.
This was a failure by driver and team, and the latter deserved the majority of the blame. Pin didn’t see the flag, which was somewhat obscured by circuit furniture, and her experienced Prema team somehow failed to realise she was still driving flat-out for two minutes after she finished. The resulting time penalty, which cost her victory, looked inevitable well before she finally pulled up at the finishing line having belatedly realised her mistake.
Isack Hadjar
Formula 2, Melbourne sprint race
Two drivers have lost wins in Formula 2 this year. While Verschoor’s was a straightforward technical infringement, Isack Hadjar’s penalty in Melbourne was more contentious.
He was one of three drivers involved in a collision which occured immediately after the race started, and resulted in Pepe Marti and Gabriel Bortoleto spinning into the barrier after the pit lane exit.
Stewards have in the past been more lenient on collisions which occur after standing starts, or even ignored them completely as in the case of the F1 race at the same circuit a year earlier. But on this occasion they came down hard on Hadjar, handing him a 10-second time penalty which dropped him to sixth.
He gained some recompense in the feature race the next day, however, which he won thanks to a conveniently-timed Virtual Safety Car.
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Antonio Felix da Costa
Formula E, Misano EPrix race one
Antonio Felix da Costa’s disqualification from the first of Formula E’s two races at Misano earlier this month remains provisional, as his Porsche team has appealed against the decision.
He was stripped of his victory after the stewards ruled a throttle damper spring used in his car was not an approved part. Porsche claim the part in question had been used previously.
It’s the second major clash between Porsche and the FIA over the Formula E rules. Last year Porsche failed in its efforts to overturn a three-minute time penalty which cost Da Costa second place in the first race in London.
More to come?
Race organisers may not like changing the result after the crowd has begun to leave, but it’s an inevitable feature of motor sport and one which may become more likely as the rule book grows thicker and more complex.
F1 last experienced the anger which accompanies a post-race change of winner when Sebastian Vettel lost victory in the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix due to a five-second time penalty for rejoining the track unsafely in front of Lewis Hamilton, who became the winner. But it’s seen other major post-race place changes since, not least Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s disqualification from second and fourth respectively in last year’s United States Grand Prix, and the avalanche of penalties in the evening after the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Newgarden case highlighted another potential emerging feature of post-race penalties: Sanctions which are announced and imposed long after the race. The Cadillac which finished fifth in the opening round of the World Endurance Championship was disqualified 26 days later.
But those two examples would be utterly overshadowed if Felipe Massa succeeds in his attempt to reopen the book on the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix…
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