F1 | Bottas loses three positions on the grid for obstructing Piastri

Bottas will start last in Saturday afternoon’s Sprint at Hard Rock Stadium, actually just two places behind where he qualified after stewards deemed he had impeded McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during Friday’s Sprint Qualifying.

The accident occurred four minutes from the end of SQ1, with Bottas slowly making his way into Turn 1 having just completed a flying lap, while Piastri quickly closed in behind him having just started his.

Fortunately, the two were able to avoid the accident, but the stewards noted that Sauber had not warned Bottas of Piastri coming behind him, believing that this was a mistake on the part of the team, which contributed to generating this situation.

However, the stewards still issued a grid fine to Bottas, as Article 33.4 of the F1 sporting regulations states: “The primary responsibility lies with the driver, who must ensure that he does not put himself in a position to unnecessarily hinder a other pilot”.

“In this case, car 77 was driving slowly on the racing line and caused the situation that was created,” the bulletin added.

The incident is notable because Bottas has a new race engineer for this weekend after what the Finn called “a rather sudden change” made by Sauber between this event and the Chinese GP.

The investigation into Mercedes could lead to a change in the rules

In another investigation after Sprint Qualifying, the stewards decided not to take action against Mercedes for the fact that its mechanics were not wearing helmets while making adjustments to the front wing of Lewis Hamilton’s car in the closing stages of the SQ2.

This is a violation of article 34.13 of the sporting regulations which states: “All team personnel carrying out work on a car in the pit lane when the car is in the pit stop position must wear helmets.”

The rule also states that “the use of adequate eye protection is mandatory.”

But the stewards chose not to sanction Mercedes because “while we were examining the team’s conduct in relation to this infringement, we noted that a number of other teams had engaged in similar work without helmets and/or without eye protection during the session either within the pit stop location or in the immediate vicinity”.

The bulletin continued: “Certainly, those who were working on the car within the pit stop locations would also have violated Article 34.13 (for example by touching the car or lifting it).”

“Indeed, those who were slightly outside their pit stop position may not have violated the aforementioned article, but the distinction, from a safety perspective (which is the likely purpose of this rule), was not obvious for us”.

“Furthermore, it appears that the established practice is to lift the car, while fans are used to cool the brakes, within the pit stop position to return the car to the garage.”

“This too, read strictly, could constitute a violation of the aforementioned regulations.”

“So, under these circumstances, penalizing one team, when all or almost all teams could potentially have violated this article in one form or another, would serve no purpose. As a result, we took no further action.”

The stewards then asked the FIA ​​to “consider whether changes need to be made to current practices during qualifying and Sprint Qualifying or to the regulations themselves”.

Finally, a group of drivers investigated for driving too slowly during SQ1 and SQ2 escaped a penalty, as has become typical for such situations in recent F1 seasons.