Formula 3 championship contender Luke Browning has lost his best lap time from qualifying after the stewards used new powers to penalise him for causing a red flag.
The Williams junior driver, who came into the weekend seven points behind leader Gabriele Mini, originally qualified seventh and was set to inherit one place from another driver who was disqualified after the session.However the stewards chose to use a new rule introduced for 2024 giving them the power to delete the fastest lap time of a driver if they were considered solely responsible for causing a red flag. They therefore removed Browning’s best time, a 1’34.437. His next-best time was a 1’34.941 which will drop him to 14th on the grid, one place behind Mini.
The rule was introduced to F3 and F2 to prevent drivers from being able to gain an advantage by causing a red flag in qualifying which would stop rivals from beating their lap time. Some drivers have called for a similar rule to be introduced in F1.
The stewards accepted Browning’s explanation that his crash at turn 11 was caused by a driving error. They ruled: “The driver of car 14 [Browning] stated that he was in control of his car during the entire session and due to factors outside his control, he spun and collided with the barriers.
“The driver explained that there may have been debris on the track surface, and this may have been the factor that contributed to him losing control of the car. The stewards acknowledged the driver’s honesty and detailed explanation of his approach in driving during the session and particularly what happened at turn 11. The driver explained that if he had continued (without losing control) that he may have set a far better qualifying during that lap.
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“The stewards presented the driver with the text of Article 33.5 of the 2024 FIA F3 Sporting Regulations, which states ‘any driver who in the opinion of the stewards is the sole cause of the issuance of a red flag during the qualifying practice session will not be permitted to take any further part in the session and their fastest lap time during the session may be deleted.’
“The resultant action following car 14’s collision caused the qualifying session to be red-flagged, and the session to be ended prematurely. This sudden end to the session not only affected car 14 (who may have qualified better) but it also affected the vast majority of the grid that was on a last attempt to secure better qualifying results.
“The stewards determined that the fastest lap attained by car 14, during the session, should be deleted in line with Article 33.5 of the 2024 FIA F3 Regulations.
“In [reaching] this decision the stewards determine that there was no external or technical mitigating factor outside the driver’s control that may have justified the collision into the safety barriers. The stewards do not consider any malice, bad/intentional intent from the driver’s part to cause the issuance of a red flag.”
Three other penalties affecting the starting order for this weekend’s F3 races were also announced. Joshua Dufek lost his sixth place on the grid for the Formula 3 feature race after being disqualified from yesterday’s qualifying session. His AIX-run car was found to be 1.5 kilograms below the minimum weight limit.
Two other drivers, Piotr Wisnicki and Kacper Sztuka, were given three-place grid penalties for impeding Dino Beganovic and Sebastien Montoya respectively. They originally qualified 24th and 27th respectively.
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Jere (@jerejj)
20th July 2024, 8:08
A totally ridiculous rule & still penalizing despite accepting his valid explanation.
I even assumed correctly that his off was simply an error or in this case something out of his control rather than a deliberate attempt to influence the outcome, which is when only ever should causing a red or even yellow, for that matter, lead to a sporting penalty.
Axel
20th July 2024, 9:24
I don’t like this rule. I get why they imposed it and agree that something should be done to compensate for the hinderance it causes. But why don’t they add an extra 2 and a half or 3 minutes so everyone can still set a time?
Drivers should be able to push to the limit on that final qualifying lap. Not hold back a bit because they might lose their other fastest lap, which in F1 will often be their only other lap.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th July 2024, 9:53
That’s exactly what Browning was doing regardless of the rule.
This rule has existed in many other series for years, such as IndyCar, and it’s never seemed to me like the drivers in those championships hold back in qualifying because of it. It’s a theory which isn’t borne out in real life.
Stephen Taylor
20th July 2024, 10:54
Keith,
With the greatest of respect I have to remind you FIA stewards have had powers for years to delete lap times of give grid penalties to drivers they feel had crashed deliberately and and so on. We saw that with Schumacher in Monaco in 2006. The stewards have just chosen not to use them They didn’t need to write this rule but if it it is to be introduced in F1 then it needs to be redrafted slightly to take malice and intent into account.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
21st July 2024, 10:25
I take your point but whether the rule was needed or not, it’s still a new rule and was specifically cited by the stewards when they issued this penalty.
Ian Stephens (@ians)
20th July 2024, 18:41
Perhaps the rulemakers were worried that TV schedules might already overrun because of the red flag and didn’t want to make it even worse by adding more time as compensation.