Why FIA is in no hurry to investigate Perez/Red Bull trick

F1 News

FIA need not rush rule change after Perez trick Japan
24 September 2023 at 20:35
  • GPblog.com

Whereas Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz said that the FIA will soon start investigating the loophole after Red Bull Racing's high-profile trick with Sergio Perez in Japan, Mirror Sport, on the contrary, says that the FIA is probably in no hurry to investigate it.

Red Bull trick is rare

Sergio Perez put his car in the pit box after a bizarrely bad first stage of the Japanese Grand Prix. In the final stage, he still came out to serve an outstanding time penalty. In doing so, the team prevented the outstanding time penalty from the Japan GP from translating into a grid penalty for the next Grand Prix in Qatar. According to Kravitz, a clever strategy, but a glaring situation that would be made impossible by the FIA as soon as possible.

Mirror Sport says it understands that the FIA is not in a hurry to investigate the situation. Indeed, the FIA seems to have little interest in changing the rules to prevent this trick from happening to other teams in the future. One reason for not changing it is that the situation is extremely rare and infrequent.

'FIA rule change could cause more problems'

The Medium writes: "The FIA always analyses such incidents and decisions after every race, and that consideration plays a role in deciding any tweaks made to the sporting regulations. And it will be taking a closer look at Red Bull's actions and the wording of the rules which allowed for the loophole that the team used."

Most importantly, it appears that the FIA is not expected to make any rash decisions. So although, as with any incident, it will still be discussed, a quick rule change could actually backfire. Indeed, with quick rule changes, it often happens that other problems are actually created, according to Mirror.