The Italian Grand Prix grid is once again scrambled by penalties, with Charles Leclerc the only driver to start in the position in which he qualified.
Ideally, I would have liked this column to go live earlier but when it was written there was still a fair amount of confusion as to how the grid would line up, which shows how big a problem it is when even the FIA takes its time to work things out.
The way the grid penalties are currently handed out is not only confusing but also isn’t a true penalty for some and will be negligible to the points outcome for a top team. Hardly the “deterrent” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has suggested they are.
I’ve previously suggested a points deduction, which would ensure that if penalties are still being applied then any team making a decision to use more power unit elements of gearboxes would suffer consequences in the championship. Then it’s about more than the inconvenience of choosing a circuit where the top cars can recover easily.
But this idea doesn’t seem to have gathered much support, so what if the penalties were turned into actual grid positions? This means that if there are insufficient places to lose from where you qualify, you have a time penalty that makes up the difference. It would be served at your first pitstop, as with in-race penalties for causing collisions or pitlane speeding.
Let’s see how that would play out based on this weekend’s qualifying result in the table below.
For my system, the ‘back of the grid’ penalty would be eliminated and replaced by a 20-place penalty. That would make more sense to everyone anyway.
| Qualifying | Penalty | Actual Grid | My Grid | Time penalty | |
| 1 | Leclerc | Leclerc | Leclerc | ||
| 2 | Verstappen | 5 place | Russell | Russell | |
| 3 | Sainz | Back of grid | Norris | Norris | |
| 4 | Perez | 10 place | Ricciardo | Ricciardo | |
| 5 | Hamilton | Back of grid | Gasly | Gasly | |
| 6 | Russell | Alonso | Alonso | ||
| 7 | Norris | Verstappen | Verstappen | ||
| 8 | Ricciardo | De Vries | De Vries | ||
| 9 | Gasly | Zhou | Zhou | ||
| 10 | Alonso | Latifi | Latifi | ||
| 11 | Ocon | 5 place | Vettel | Vettel | |
| 12 | Bottas | 15 place | Stroll | Stroll | |
| 13 | De Vries | Perez | Sainz | +3s | |
| 14 | Zhou | Ocon | Perez | ||
| 15 | Tsunoda | Back of grid | Bottas | Hamilton | +5s |
| 16 | Latifi | Magnussen | Ocon | ||
| 17 | Vettel | Schumacher | Bottas | +7s | |
| 18 | Stroll | Sainz | Magnussen | +14s | |
| 19 | Magnussen | 15-place | Hamilton | Tsunoda | +15s |
| 20 | Schumacher | 15-place | Tsunoda | Schumacher | +15s |
If you just take the qualifying position and add the penalty to that position, you end up with this for the drivers that end up outside of the top 20. That’s where the time penalty column in the table comes into play.
| Theoretical grid spot | Driver | Time penalty |
| 23 | Sainz | +3s |
| 25 | Hamilton | +5s |
| 27 | Bottas | +7s |
| 33 | Magnussen | +14s |
| 34 | Tsunoda | +15s |
| 35 | Schumacher | +15s |
A system like this would mean that qualifying was still critical in impacting your final grid position and in turn race prospects.
It would also allow the rest of the field to gain from another driver abusing the system to put them in a better position for later in the season in a way that isn’t simply lost among the puzzling reshuffles that currently exist.
