Sargeant Critiques FIA's Unclear Penalty Decisions

Logan Sargeant questions the FIA’s vague penalty during the Chinese Grand Prix, expressing his need for clearer feedback.

Logan Sargeant does not understand the penalty he received at the Chinese Grand Prix this Sunday. Under safety car conditions, he overtook Nico Hülkenberg who was exiting the pits, just past the Safety Car line that determines the order of the standings under these conditions.

The FIA did not communicate to him through his team about the illegality of the overtake, but a few minutes later, he was given a 10-second penalty for overtaking under the Safety Car. The Williams F1 driver is frustrated by such a decision and the lack of communication from the FIA race direction.

“There’s a bit of elevation there too, and I guess that makes it hard to see when cars are spaced out by a large distance,” Sargeant explained. “For my part, I thought I was way ahead.”

“I didn’t even think it was close, so for me, there was no discussion. It’s therefore a bit strange to hear about it at the end of the race. I don’t know if the FIA could share their feedback.”

“We were under the safety car for hours; I don’t know why they didn’t just tell me to give back the position. Obviously, I would have done it if they had told me, but to my knowledge, I thought I was far ahead.”

Reflecting on his race, the American is pleased with his initial stints, but the last one on hard tires was a disaster due to not reaching the operating window.

“There were good and bad moments. I think the start of the race with the soft tires was good and when we switched to medium tires, we were really well placed. But we probably could have done without the safety car, because we would have run medium, medium and that would have suited us better.”

“We put on the hard tires, I couldn’t even get them to work, and I immediately destroyed the front tires. From there, it was a tough fight. I’m a bit confused about that last stint, probably one of the most painful I’ve had. We’ll see if we can do better in the future.”