Gasly angry at FIA: 'If they disagree they should say so'

F1 News

5 November 2022 at 11:47
Last update 5 November 2022 at 13:52
  • GPblog.com

Piere Gasly hopes he can get a clearer view from race officials in Brazil about handing out penalty points. The AlphaTauri driver is close to a disqualification. After the Mexico Grand Prix, he criticized the FIA 's attitude and expressed hope that a better policy would be adopted in the future.

Gasly is in a tricky situation. He currently has 10 penalty points on his licence. At 12 points, a driver is disqualified for at least one race. The next time points will not expire for Gasly until May 2023, meaning the Frenchman will have to complete nine races without reaching that limit.

Gasly's most recent penalty points were gained in Mexico, where the AlphaTauri driver had a collision with Lance Stroll's Aston Martin. Gasly forced Stroll off track and managed to gain a position in the process. The driver is often expected to then give the position back and try again later but because Gasly did not do so now, he received a time penalty and a penalty point from race control. Gasly said after the race that he was very frustrated with the situation and the way the FIA handles such moments.

"I’m a racing driver, and if I see a gap I will go for the gap,” Gasly said, paraphrasing Ayrton Senna's famous quote. "And if [the FIA] are not happy about it, tell me to give the position back, and then I will try again. But they didn't do that this time. At the end of the day I try my best inside the car, and the last thing I want is to get stupid penalty points and lose race time."

Gasly wants to be prepared in Brazil

Looking ahead to the next race in Brazil, Gasly said he wants to have the discussion with the stewards to see what he should do differently then. Having the discussion on the track is no do, so Gasly hopes to get ahead of the trouble this time. He also expressed the hope that in future the FIA will be more lenient in handing out penalty points.