{"id":776165,"date":"2026-07-02T19:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T19:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/776165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T19:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T19:52:14","slug":"indecent-proposal-how-sainzs-big-idea-to-change-f1-qualifying-might-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/776165\/","title":{"rendered":"Indecent proposal? How Sainz’s big idea to change F1 qualifying might work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max\u00a0Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s high-speed trip across the Turn 9 gravel during Q3 in Austria last weekend generated much frenzied debate on several fronts, the first being whether race control took too long to instruct the marshals to display double-waved yellow flags.<\/p>\n

Following this, a separate but related kerfuffle surrounded the rights and wrongs of George Russell<\/a> setting pole position just seconds after\u00a0Verstappen smote the barrier.<\/p>\n

When Red Bull issued a peculiar mea culpa\u00a0afterwards, attributing the spin to a loss of rear downforce<\/a> but declining to elaborate on the record as to what caused that, the effect was to stimulate yet more argument. All in all, the events of Q3 at the Red Bull Ring generated enough shoulda-woulda-coulda to guarantee Beverley Knight a generous PRS cheque in the near future.<\/p>\n

Obviously\u00a0Verstappen derived no benefit from the shunt, but it caused Kimi Antonelli<\/a> to abort a lap which would probably have been good enough for the front row. Instead he started the race from fourth, lost his cool while trying to make progress on the opening lap, and ended up finishing third in a race he had the pace to win.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

So with this and other incidents in mind, Carlos Sainz<\/a> said in Silverstone that he has a proposal to put to his peers and the FIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a very personal idea about this that hasn’t been discussed among the\u00a0GPDA [Grand Prix Drivers\u2019 Association] yet, which I will potentially bring forward as an idea,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI think this weekend because of being a sprint maybe we don’t have a proper meeting about it, but I think we should \u2013 because it’s clear to me at least that that situation [Q3 in Austria] should have been a double yellow or a red [flag].<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way George handled it I think was perfect for what the\u00a0rulebook allows you to do and he deserved that pole position because he played the rules to perfection. But it should never have been allowed to finish that lap or to close a lap in that kind of dangerous situation.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos <\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz, Williams<\/p>\n

Photo by: Kym Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say, well, if Max had been on pole in the first run and then he produced that crash, and then there\u2019s red flag and no one improves their lap, it would be unfair for George,\u00a0Kimi and everyone \u2013 because the guy on pole is not letting us improve the lap time.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike typically in Monaco \u2013 and I could have done last year in Baku when I was on pole and I was the first car out of the pits, and I said if I crash now I’m on pole. We all have these thoughts and we all know how the\u00a0rulebook works.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for that I think that anyone who generates a yellow flag or a red flag in qualifying should be three places with drop. So at least you get\u00a0penalised and you get disincentivised to get a flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously Max crashed through a failure of the rear wing or something like this. I think we should find a solution for that \u2013 and that’s my only idea that I think if you generate a yellow or a red you should get some kind of penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you push flat out but you push too far and you’re not letting others improve, you’re earning a position by not letting others do a better job than you. Even if non-intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a complex proposition to unpack, and muddied in the context of Austria by the circumstances of\u00a0Verstappen\u2019s accident. It\u2019s understood the rear wing took fractionally too long to close after the end of the preceding Straight Line Mode zone, but photographs and TV footage indicating it was shut as the spin began led to much frothing at the mouth.<\/p>\n

When the active aerodynamics are switched on and off, there is an invisible but powerful effect on the\u00a0loadings through the tyres, particularly when the wings are closed again because the airflow takes further fractions of a second to reattach. Add in the nature of the approach to Turn 9 \u2013 a blind crest \u2013 and the idea of an unloaded rear axle in the circumstances is a plausible one.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing crash<\/p>\n

Photo by: Clive Rose \/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Not that anyone except the most demented conspiracy theorists are claiming Verstappen deliberately engineered the shunt. But Sainz is right to say that some drivers can and do protect their qualifying positions \u2013 not necessarily pole \u2013 by generating yellow flags.<\/p>\n

There are the famous incidents in Monaco of\u00a0Michael Schumacher<\/a> at the Rascasse in 2006, or Nico Rosberg<\/a>\u2019s \u2018accidental\u2019 trip down the escape road at Mirabeau in 2014. And as Sainz pointed out, Baku is another problematic track given the likelihood of drivers locking up at Turn 1.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the ease of manufacturing yellow flags in Baku is what has driven the policy of waiting to assess the severity of an incident before displaying double yellows. All other factors being equal during qualifying, the conditions for a quick lap are most favourable at the end of the session, chiefly because of track evolution \u2013 this is how Russell secured pole in Austria despite lifting off for the yellows.\u00a0Spoiling those final laps is therefore very tempting. So there is a broad consensus among the drivers that penalties for deliberately causing flags could be a good thing.<\/p>\n

The obvious question, then, is who would preside over the judging process. It would require data and\u00a0frontline driving experience \u2013 and even then it would involve an element of subjectivity.<\/p>\n

In recent years, ex-drivers have been invited onto the stewards\u2019 panel to improve the fidelity of the decision-making. But even then there have been high-profile occasions where their objectivity and experience has been called into question.<\/p>\n

You could also say that very often, crashing in qualifying comes freighted with its own punishment. A shunt big enough to bring out a red flag generally involves a large repair job and a\u00a0pitlane start.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Peter Fox \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has definitely been spoken about before,\u201d said George Russell at\u00a0Silverstone.\u00a0\u201cIf somebody causes a yellow or a red flag it kind of should be punished \u2013 because it does have an effect on other drivers or whether your fastest lap is deleted. We see it in another series.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut on the flip side, people would also say your drivers aren’t taking as much risk. Come Q3 you want to see the drivers pushing the limits. You don’t ever want to see someone get hurt but you want to see drivers going off the track at points and going beyond the limits.\u00a0\u201cSo there’s pros and cons both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed there are. If penalties were to be implemented for bringing out flags in qualifying, how long would it be until the first post-session furore?<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max\u00a0Verstappen\u2019s high-speed trip across the Turn 9 gravel during Q3 in Austria last weekend generated much frenzied debate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1037,49,48,3020,578,576,577,275250,1423,82],"class_list":["post-776165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-british-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-indecent-proposal-how-sainzs-big-idea-to-change-f1-qualifying-might-work","tag-silverstone-circuit","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}