Alex Albon has clarified his criticism of Formula 1’s penalty system, arguing that five-second penalties only punish the drivers representing teams down the order.
The Anglo-Thai driver vented his frustration on the situation after a late clash with the Red Bull of Sergio Perez in Singapore dropped him out of a points-scoring position.
Albon then had to avoid more contact with Perez at the next round in Japan before the Mexican crashed into the side of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas at the Turn 11 hairpin.
On both occasions, Perez was slapped with a five-second time penalty by the stewards.
However, it proved inconsequential to his result as he retained eighth place in Singapore and came out of retirement at Suzuka to serve his penalty in order to avoid a grid drop for last weekend’s race in Qatar.
That prompted Albon to bemoan that penalties “aren’t strict enough” and argue they’re not “teaching the drivers anything”, particularly those driving for top teams.
Asked to expand on his comments, Albon said: “That was obviously right after I had a crash! But I think the main thing about it is… To be honest with you, thinking back on my words, it’s not so much about teaching drivers, it’s more the fact that the car that’s quicker tends to be able to get away with these incidents, quite often, position-free.
“What I mean by that is, for example, if I take my Monza race, I was holding off Lando the whole race, but if he had just cut the chicane for one of those laps and overtaken me and then pulled away, he would have got a five-second penalty, but he would have pulled away and had nothing done to him.
“Likewise, with Checo in Singapore, he can take that risk because there’s a very good chance he can pull that five seconds away from me, so it definitely puts drivers in a position where the car behind can be a bit more aggressive than the car in front – as in, if I defend and I do a mistake and I get a five-second penalty, quite often, more than not, I’m going to lose two or three positions, because I’m holding up a train.”
But Albon has sympathised with the difficult predicament facing the stewards, conceding that consistency is hard to enforce.
Pressed on whether he could promote a short-term solution to the problem, Albon remarked: “Disqualification!
“Yes. I do know that we, as drivers, we want consistency, but there is a genuine feeling that it is very hard to be consistent in these positions. And I understand, and I do sympathise with the FIA, that it’s not that easy to do.
“I don’t have an answer, but if you gave me a bit more time, and a bit more time to talk, I would come up with an answer!”
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