Lance Stroll says he lacked understanding of the reasoning behind the penalty he received for weaving during Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
Stroll ran a left-field race strategy in Melbourne, moving from Hards to Mediums behind the early Safety Car – ensuring he had run both compounds – before coming in on the next lap for another set of Hards.
That eventually left him ahead of later-stopping rivals albeit in machinery that has been limited competitively through the opening stages of 2022.
Stroll was in front of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and in striving to retain his position was judged to have weaved in contravention of the regulations.
Stewards deemed that Stroll “moved right to defend against a potential overtake from Bottas” and then “returned to the racing line and then moved to the right for a second time to defend from another move by Bottas.”
It was outlined that Stroll had made more than one change of direction to defend a position.
He was issued a five-second time penalty and an additional penalty point on his license that brings his rolling 12-month total up to eight.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “I mean I see guys weaving all the time, it’s just the last move really.
“You can weave down the straight as long as you don’t weave when the guy is approaching very close behind you.
“I’m weaving to try and break the slipstream not to try and defend, then they penalised for me it, I don’t get it, there’s a lot of funny decisions going on right now.”
Bottas described Stroll as “one of the more aggressive ones” and that the weaving “made it really hard for me to decide which way to go, so it was a bit on the limit.”
The penalty did not influence Stroll’s final position of 12th as his and Aston Martin’s point-less start to the season continued.
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