Aston Martin Formula 1 boss Mike Krack has branded the decision to penalise Lance Stroll for his contact with Daniel Ricciardo in the Chinese Grand Prix as “harsh”.
Stroll shunted Ricciardo’s rear and handed the RB driver race-ending floor damage when the pack condensed up at the Turn 14 hairpin to prep for a Safety Car restart.
The Canadian was hit with a 10-second time drop and coupled with his required front wing change, he dropped outside contention for points and was classified 15th.
Stroll, who was also handed two penalty points, criticised the verdict, prompting Ricciardo to admit his rival’s intent to allocate blame elsewhere made his “blood boil”.
But Krack was aligned with his driver’s view as the Aston Martin Team Principal queried the swiftness of the ruling without having heard from either individual involved.
“A very, very quick verdict without really understanding… I thought it was very, very fast and very harsh, very quick decision,” Krack told Autosport.
“I think it was a chain reaction at the end of the day. You saw Fernando [Alonso] locking and another car behind and I think everybody was a little bit caught out there.
“I would have liked that this would have been looked at in a little bit more detailed way.
“We tried to discuss it, but the verdict was very quickly that Lance was to blame. And he got a 10-second penalty, additional to the front wing damage.”
Ricciardo had noted that video footage showed Stroll was looking at the apex rather than the cars ahead, but Krack believes he was right to be anticipating the restart.
Krack reckons that such scenarios filter down from the behaviour of the drivers at the front of the pack and cited how there have been incidences of that being the case.
“These situations are created in the front,” Krack continued. “Now, you can always say, you need to be more careful.
“But, on the other hand, if you’re too careful, and you have the restart and you lose more than one car length – everybody says ‘are you asleep?’
“Things like that happen at different tracks. You remember the incident we had in Mugello [at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix], where there were a lot of cars involved.
“This is always the erratic movement that happens on a Safety Car restart. And we have some of these every year and will continue to.”
