Logan Sargeant questions FIA after they didn’t alert him and handed penalty in F1 Chinese GP, as Alexander Albon not too happy with tyre pressures.
Williams Sagreant left confused after the FIA did not intervene or asked his team to give back the position to Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in F1 Chinese GP. The incident took place when the German was leaving the pitlane while the American arrived on the main straight.
Only marginally Hulkenberg crossed the safety car line first while exiting the pitlane, but Sargeant stayed in front in the order. The American questions the FIA for not alerting them as he would have given the place back to the German.
Sargeant felt he was ahead but he was ready still to give back the place considering the small margin. “I think the once that I could influence was with Nico, I thought I crossed the line first, I don’t know what they expect, two cars separated by 50m laterally to my eyeline,” he said to the media.
“To my side, I thought I was way ahead. I didn’t think it was even close so, to me, it was no discussion. So, to hear about that at the end of the race was a bit strange. I don’t know if there’s any way the FIA could maybe give us some feedback. We were under safety car for ages, I don’t know why they didn’t just tell me to give the position back.
“Obviously, I would’ve done so, had they said, but to my knowledge, I thought I was way ahead. There’s a bit of elevation there as well and I guess it just makes things hard to see when cars are split by quite a big distance,” summed up Sargeant, who reckoned the safety car wrecked their grand prix as his last stint was terrible.
“There were good moments, bad moments,” said Sargeant. “I think the start of the race on the softs was strong and when we put on the medium tyre, we were in a really good place. But we probably could’ve done without that safety car because we would’ve gone medium, medium and that would’ve suited us much better.
“We put the hard tyre on, and I couldn’t even get it to switch on, and immediately destroyed the fronts. From that point on, it was a massive, massive struggle. Bit confused about that last stint and probably one of the most painful ones I’ve had. We will see if we can do better going forward,” summed up Sargeant, whose teammate Alexander Albon did not have a sound outing as well.
He complained of higher tyre pressures from Pirelli which he reckons hampered everyone as he reckons the call with Pierre Gasly was marginal and he was relieved that he wasn’t penalised. “For the whole midfield, for a lot of drivers it was difficult,” said Albon. “Pirelli again went another step on the tyre pressure, it is totally not fun at all.
“And yet we were just passengers with all the degradation. The wind did died down in the race and that helped the car which we expected but we need to focus on Miami and I feel we will have a better car there. Not a good weekend for us.
“I knew it was going to be marginal, I did try to give him space as much as I can but we are lacking a serious amount of fronts, so when we have to go deep, it looks like a bit of a mess but obviously I got away with it and then that was my race. I saw Alpine all weekend.”
Here’s what the stewards said: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2024%20Chinese%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Infringement%20-%20Car%202%20-%20Overtaking%20under%20Safety%20Car%20conditions.pdf
Here’s how F1 Chinese GP panned out
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