F1 News: McLaren Boss Demands "Immediate Action" Over Impeding After Mexico Qualifying Episode
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has demanded immediate action over Formula 1's pit lane impeding situation after serious problems surfaced during the Mexico Grand Prix qualifying at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.
One of the disadvantages of the introduction of maximum lap time for qualifying out laps is that it pushed drivers to try and build gaps to the car ahead of them while coming out of the pits.
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Quite obviously, several drivers impeded their rivals from going out, thus leaving those waiting frustrated for being held up by the cars in front. George Russell, Max Verstappen, and Fernando Alonso were investigated for impeding other drivers in Q1 in the pit lane but eventually, they were given a clean chit.
Despite the FIA stewards calling for a better solution, Stella thinks the issue needs to be addressed with high priority since it is becoming an unfair situation for drivers that were being held up. He told the media:
“I think immediate action needs to be taken. It's not a good spectacle.
"It makes the operations very difficult, because you send your car and you actually don't know when your car is going to get on track.
"It puts all drivers too much at the mercy of the other drivers. And this for me starts to be unfair.
"We need to create policy aspects and ruling aspects to control the situation, which I think is just inappropriate.”
Adding to his boss's remarks, McLaren driver Lando Norris believes the current impeding problems have been spiralling out of control. He said:
“It's something again that we've said is going to happen, is going to be problematic.
"Before you didn't see too many bad scenarios, now you've seen some worse scenarios, because people are wanting the gaps to be even bigger.
"Everyone's kind of pushing the limits more and more because you can get away with it.
"And because no one's been penalised for anything, even when people have been in the wrong or should have been penalised, people are just doing massive gaps now.”
