Shortly after the conclusion of the Monte Carlo race, Red Bull team leader Christian Horner was at a media conference when he received a call from sporting director Jonathan Wheatley informing him that Ferrari had formally complained. .
Ferrari felt that the two Red Bull drivers had breached the regulations when they appeared to be running for the yellow pitlane when they left after their smooth tire exchange on lap 22.
During the race, Pérez’s incident had been observed by the commissioners but there had been no further communication.
And subsequent footage of Verstappen on board showed that he was far beyond the line than his teammate, so he could be more likely to have broken the rules that would normally give him a time penalty.
Ferrari considered that the matter needed an investigation because it had the impression that the FIA considered it an offense if any part of the car touched the yellow line.
As Ferrari team manager Mattia Binotto explained before reaching the verdict: “The intention of protesting is not really to protest against Red Bull itself. But we are looking for clarification on an issue that, for us, in some ways it is obviously unclear.
“I think the two Red Bulls were on the line, on the yellow line, coming out of the pit lane. And in the past, he has always been penalized with five seconds.
“More than that, if you read the race director’s notes, it’s clearly written. And that’s well written, I think [since] Turkey 2020, to avoid any misunderstanding, we need to stay on the right of the yellow line.
“To avoid confusion with the word ‘cross’, being on the line, you have to stay to the right of the yellow line. And for us, that was not the case at all. “
“The intention of protesting is not really protesting against Red Bull itself. But we are looking for clarification on an issue that, for us, is somehow obviously not clear.” Mattia Binotto
Photo by: Ferrari
The race notes for the Monaco Grand Prix did emphasize that the drivers had to stay to the right of the line instead of crossing it.
The official notes of the event read: “According to Chapter 4 (Section 5) of Appendix L of the ISC, pilots must remain to the right of the solid yellow line at the exit of the pits and stay to the right of this line until it ends after turn 1 “.
It is a position that has been present for some time and that effectively changed after the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix, when by chance Verstappen himself was investigated for crossing the line.
Verstappen then escaped punishment because there was no “conclusive evidence” that the Dutchman had completely crossed the white line separating the pit exit from the track.
But that incident sparked a debate about what it really meant to “cross” a line.
The car had to go all the way to the other side of the line to “cross it” or it was enough for a violation of the rules to be classified as simple by touching it and therefore crossing its limit. interior?
The debate sparked by the Verstappen event caused a small change in the usual notes of the F1 event for the next event.
For Turkey, referring to the pitlane’s starting lines, Michael Masi had written “in accordance with Chapter 4 (Section 5) of Appendix L of the ISC, pilots must remain in the left of the solid white line at the exit of the pits when they leave the pits. No part of any car leaving the pits may cross that line. “
For the next race (although it was later corrected to “right side”), it had been changed to lose the second sentence above: “In accordance with Chapter 4 (Section 5) of Appendix L of the “ISC, the drivers must stay to the left of the solid white line at the exit of the box when leaving the box.”
The new clarification meant that if any part of the car (which is actually the tire) passed through the inner edge of the line, then it would be enough for a gap because it was no longer next to it.
This became the accepted standard and, according to the event notes, nothing had changed, as confirmed by Freitas’ note for Monaco.
Thus, when there was a debate over whether or not the Red Bull drivers had touched the line, Ferrari’s actions seemed inevitable given the apparent contradiction.
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In the end, however, things had changed in the FIA, with the modification of the specific section of the International Sports Code for 2022 to emphasize the “cross the line” element.
In 2020, the ISC section stated: “Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the Commissioners), any line painted on the track at the pit exit in order to separate the cars leaving of the pits of those on the track. not to be crossed by any car coming out of the pits “.
This was changed at the end of last year, to be requested this season, to say: “Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the Commissioners Commissioners), no tire of a car leaving the pit lane must not cross any painted line. on the track at the pit exit for the purpose of separating cars leaving the pit lane from those on the track “.
This wording puts the emphasis back on crossing the line, rather than touching it, and now revolves around tires and not just one-piece car.
And in the FIA verdict after the Monaco GP he stated that the ISC has precedents at all times.
Therefore, Freitas’ advice in the notes of the event, which had been “cut and pasted” from last year’s Monaco tickets, was invalid.
Thus, even though Verstappen had some of his tires above the yellow line (Pérez was completely clear), the entire tire had not crossed, so there was no breach of the rules.
As the commissioners said, “The car did not cross the line, it would have had to have a full wheel to the left of the yellow line.
“Consequently, the driver did not violate the relevant section of the Code and this takes precedence over any interpretation of the notes.”
There are two interesting consequences of this clarification.
The first is that now the pitlane’s starting line can be abused much more by drivers than some had previously believed.
Where they had previously treated it as a difficult stop not to touch, the current interpretation is that they can run through it as long as their wheel does not cross.
This means that riders now have an extra margin to be potentially more defensive when they come out of the pits using more track at the pit exit.
Beyond that, Monaco’s decisions have also called into question any of the decisions in the race director’s usual event notes, as it is now accepted that, even if advice is given, the ‘ISC will have full priority.
And in a sport where teams are constantly pushing the boundaries of the rules, it means that there may not be the scope for flexibility in interpreting the regulations that is sometimes needed to close the gaps that teams are exploiting.