In recent days there has been a lot of talk about the track limits during the
Bahrain Grand Prix. It played a decisive role in the battle between
Lewis Hamilton and
Max Verstappen. The criticism on the race direction and their unclear regulations was severe. Emmanuele Pirro explains to
Corriere dello Sport how things went behind the scenes.
"Michael Masi had warned the teams: all excursions at Turn 4 will be reported to the stewards if they bring a repeated or lasting advantage," Pirro said. The word 'repeated' is interesting here, as it is not in the regulations and has not been used in any explanation of them this weekend. But this does explain why Hamilton was cautioned in the first place and shows that what he did was actually not allowed.
"
Hamilton started doing this [off-track driving] a few times too often, repeatedly gaining advantage," Pirro continued
. "Masi, who is the only person allowed to talk to the teams, called Mercedes and warned them: if it continues like this, they will get the black and white flag, which is a warning that precedes a possible penalty."Pirro not entirely honest
But did Hamilton stop immediately?"Of course, he stopped immediately and that was the end of that story," said Pirro. But that's not quite true. GPblog.com checked all the laps including Hamilton's on-board radio and we could hear that Hamilton initially ignored the team's warning.
The team warned Hamilton for the first time about track limits at Turn 4 after lap 32. However, he drove the next four laps off-track, as he had done all the laps before. It was only after the second warning on lap 36 that Hamilton stopped under protest.