Richard Verschoor has lost his win in today’s Formula 2 race in Jeddah after both Trident cars failed a post-race technical inspection.
MP’s Dennis Hauger, who finished second behind Verschoor, has therefore been awarded the win in today’s sprint race.A post-race technical inspection of the Trident cars driven by Verschoor and team mate Roman Stanek, who finished 10th, found the throttle pedal progressivity maps on both did not confirm with those specified in the technical regulations.
The maps specify how much engine power is delivered for a given throttle position. Trident’s non-compliant maps were uploaded into position one in the engine control unit on both cars.
Trident’s technical director accepted the maps were incorrect and accepted responsibility for the error. He confirmed one of the team’s engineer had mistakenly uploaded a map used in 2023 to their cars.
The stewards noted the penalty for failure to comply with the technical regulations is disqualification.
In addition to losing his win, Verschoor’s disqualification means he also forfeits the 10 points he earned. These were the first points he and the team scored this year. Neither he nor Stanek attended the hearing.
This is the second significant infringement of the technical rules in as many race weekends since the series introduced its new F2 2024 chassis. Kush Maini lost pole position for the feature race in Bahrain after his car’s bodywork failed an inspection.
Hauger therefore claimed his first win of the season and his fifth in F2. Paul Aron, whom Hauger overtook late in the race, moves up to second and Enzo Fittipaldi takes the final podium spot.
Zane Maloney, Jak Crawford, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Pepe Marti all move up in the points places. Kush Maini, who originally lost the final point to Marti when he ran wide at the last corner, is restored to eighth place.
The disqualifications do not affect the starting grid for tomorrow’s feature race. Verschoor is due to start seventh, Stanek 11th.
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Nick T:
8th March 2024, 20:48
So many major technical DQs that have stripped wins, poles, points, etc. already so far. Very bizarre. Maybe just the engineers getting used to this new platform. With cars ahead dying on the last lap, DQs and Bearman in the Ferrari, Antonelli has really benefited. Unlikely he scores any points otherwise.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2024, 15:24
Let’s also not forget that there were two cars who did not get going from the grid (and were started again in the pitlane)
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
8th March 2024, 21:03
the problem with highly regulated enterprises, its typically the rule makers who choose who and what to enforce that ends up determining things like championships and victory.
Let the guys run what ever maps they want, the best team wins. Or force them to run inside mono-culture where diversity is despised and competition is a sin.
#racetothebottom
Tristan
8th March 2024, 23:38
You’d want to use simulation (perhaps augmented by AI) to optimise the best throttle map adjustments per driver, per circuit.
F2 being ultimately the F1 feeder where drivers can prove their ability, means it makes sense that there should not be much performance delta between the cars.
S
9th March 2024, 7:42
You call it a problem, others call it the challenge of the activity – the reason there is a competition at all. People can compare their performance with each other on an equal playing field and in controlled conditions.
If they win, it’s usually because they did the best within the same constraints as everyone else. Otherwise more popularly known as “sport.”
Perhaps the ‘Enhanced Games’ are more your kind of ‘sport’ @pcxmac?
There are far more problems with the opposing anarchistic (sorry, ‘free’) enterprise than the controlled, social kind.
Tristan
8th March 2024, 23:32
Mmm bummer, would have liked to know what the allowed map curves look like but it’s on the team portal not the regs.
I can understand them being specified, being able to optimise them well could be a big performance gain, and utilise a lot of costly technology to absolutely perfect.