FIA judges punished the Mercedes driver for a tricky attempt to overtake Alex Albon off the track, awarding him a pit stop at the Monaco Grand Prix .
The FIA has explained why George Russell received a tougher than usual penalty for overtaking Alex Albon off the track at the Monaco Grand Prix.
In the battle for the final points, Russell was frustrated by the driving of Alex Albon, who was slowing down to create space for teammate Carlos Sainz ahead so that he could make a pit stop.
On lap 50, Russell cut through the Nouvelle chicane to overtake Albon, stating over the radio that he had to avoid a collision due to what he said was the Williams driver’s erratic driving. However, rather than retake the position, Russell decided to accept the usual 10-second penalty, hoping to build up a large enough lead to stay ahead of Albon.
However, the FIA judges had a different opinion – Russell’s radio message proved to them that he had deliberately overtaken off the track. Because of this, they gave him a significantly higher penalty of going through the pits, in order to thwart his cunning tactics.
The referees’ decision said race director Rui Marques had warned teams in advance that he reserved the right to impose penalties in excess of the usual 10-second penalty if he judged drivers to be exploiting the rules, particularly in Monaco, where track position is crucial and a 10-second penalty is often not enough of a deterrent.
“Car number 63 left the track in turn number 10 and overtook car number 23. It did not regain its position and kept its position on the track,” says the judge’s explanation.
“It is clear from the message over the radio, in which he says that he will receive a penalty, that the overtaking was intentional, because he thought that car number 23 was slowing him down with unpredictable driving.”
“Anticipating that such situations could occur at the Monaco Grand Prix, all teams were informed prior to the race by the race director (at the request of the judges) that the judges would be closely monitoring the deliberate departure of the track at turn 10 to overtake a car or group of slow cars.”
“This communication also clearly states that a 10-second penalty may not be sufficient for such a deliberate violation of the rules and that the penalty may be higher.”
“Therefore, we considered that the deliberate violation of the rules by car number 63 merited a pit stop penalty, and we imposed it.”‘
