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The Azerbaijan Grand Prix stewards have suggested a Formula 1 rule needs to be reconsidered after an investigation into an alleged Haas incident in Baku qualifying.
Haas drivers Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen came under investigation as they did not leave the end of the pitlane in the order in which they arrived in the “fast lane”.
This is a rule that governs how cars must form up in the pitlane when a session is starting or restarting, as was the case during Q1 in Azerbaijan.
A late red flag with less than three minutes remaining set up a scramble to get a final flying lap completed, with several cars queuing up in the pitlane well before the session resumed to guarantee track position.
The Haas team is positioned at the very end of the pitlane because it finished last in the 2021 constructors’ championship.
Its cars were out of the garage and ready to join the fast lane but couldn’t because the Mercedes and AlphaTauri cars were already queuing up in front of the Haas garages and then every other car was in a line behind.
As the cars all filtered out one-by-one, Haas needed to wait until all of them had passed before releasing Schumacher and Magnussen.
The stewards investigated the incident – presumably because Magnussen technically entered the fast lane first but then let Schumacher filter in ahead – but effectively concluded that the rule cannot be accurately applied in such situations.
They wrote in their report that “the positioning of the pit garage for the team made it impossible in the circumstances for either team car to line up in order in the fast lane, in view of the number of cars that were already there”.
Both cars were deemed to have departed safely and the stewards acknowledged it “would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the team to determine which order the cars should depart, leaving the only option as starting behind all other cars”.
“This effectively means that teams allocated pits at the exit of the pit lane will always have to exit last unless they choose to leave their garage significantly earlier,” the stewards said.
“The stewards recommend that this particular regulation be examined, as this case is almost identical to that involving Williams Racing in Mexico 2021, where no further action was taken.”
