Williams Formula 1 boss James Vowles has admitted it must “develop better tools” to avoid repeating the penalty Logan Sargeant received in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Sargeant was running at a reduced speed down the start-finish straight towards Turn 1 as Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas exited the pit lane under a mid-race caution period.
But while Sargeant capitalised on his momentum to nose ahead, it later transpired that Hulkenberg’s car had been in front of the Williams at the second Safety car line.
The American was penalised 10 seconds and handed two points on his license for an illegal pass, which resulted in him finishing as the final classified runner in 17th.
Vowles has noted that Williams was unable to inform Sargeant to hand the place back in advance as it did not have the clearcut footage to distinguish who was ahead.
“It was a harsh penalty, when you see just matters of tenths translate into seconds, that’s difficult,” said Vowles in a video released by the team.
“More so, it’s very difficult for the driver to adjudicate whether he was ahead or behind.
“The responsibility falls to us and we missed it. We need to develop more and better-automated tools that allow us to see what’s going on at that point because it took us multiple camera replays before even we could see where the difference was. From the onboards, which we have video for, you couldn’t tell who was ahead and who was behind.”
He added: “What we have to do is improve our system and processes to make sure we catch that faster, because you can correct it.
“Logan would have to have slowed down during that initial incident, a few seconds later, let the car back through again, and then that would have corrected that position.
“It’s fine margins, but that’s what Formula 1 is all about.”
Vowles highlighted that the Grove-based squad had to accept the stewards’ decision because the regulations stipulate that the ruling could not be appealed post-race.
“The way penalties work is when it’s in-race like that, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t appeal it,” he disclosed.
“Once the penalty has been provided and given, it’s over effectively, it’s adjudicated by the FIA. Their adjudication was correct. We were behind at the line. Those are facts.”
Meanwhile, Sargeant has questioned the reason behind the FIA not instructing him to give the position back to Hulkenberg under the Safety Car to avoid ruining his race.
“There’s a bit of elevation there as well and I guess it just makes things hard to see when cars are split by quite a big distance,” Sargeant recalled.
“To my side, I thought I was way ahead. I didn’t think it was even close so, to me, it was no discussion.
“So, to hear about that at the end of the race was a bit strange. I don’t know if there’s any way the FIA could maybe give us some feedback.
“We were under Safeti Car for ages, I don’t know why they didn’t just tell me to give the position back. I would’ve done so, had they said, but to my knowledge, I thought I was way ahead.”
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