Five-second penalties not ‘strict enough’, vent F1 drivers after Perez example

Alex Albon has called for tougher penalties for avoidable collisions as Formula 1’s current rules are “not really teaching drivers anything”.

The Williams driver’s critique of the current penalty system comes after he was involved in a late crash with Sergio Perez in Singapore, costing him a potential points finish.

Albon was involved in another close call with Perez in Japan, with the Mexican then going on to make contact with Kevin Magnussen as he sought to turn around his race and make his way back towards the points after falling down the order.

Perez received five-second time penalties for the incidents in Singapore and Japan. However, the standard penalty for causing a collision has had no impact on his classification in either race.

The five-second penalty Perez received in Singapore failed to drop Perez lower than his eighth-place finishing position.

Then in Japan, Perez initially retired from the race only to be sent back out for a couple of laps, 26 laps down on the frontrunners, to finish serving his penalties and not face consequences at the next race in Qatar.

“The problem for me is in Turn 11, he [Perez] did the same move again to me on track today and I avoided it,” Albon said on Sunday in Suzuka.

“And then he did it again to Kevin. I was behind it so I had the best view of everyone.

“So it clearly is not teaching the drivers anything because the penalties aren’t strict enough. I mean, that’s two races in a row.”

Magnussen was also critical of Perez’s optimistic overtaking attempt, saying: “I just got spun around there by Perez, and it ruined our race.

“We had to pit, and that was too early for the two-stop strategy that we had, and the tyre degradation that we had. It was just too early to pit then. But we had to.

“I mean five seconds, I think he’s penalising himself, there’s a natural penalty for him doing that,” the Dane said in response to the Red Bull driver’s time penalty.

“It doesn’t look good for him, but it is what it is. We’re racing. He was in a shitty position, and he made a shitty move.”

In response to the plea for harsher penalties for race-ruining contact, the director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, George Russell said: “Yeah, I mean I’ve been in the position where I’ve taken blame.

“Austin last year I made the mistake with Carlos and I got five seconds for it. That was probably drive-through worthy.

“It’s difficult because you can’t judge, you shouldn’t judge the consequence of the incident but sometimes you need to judge the consequence of the incident. So I’ll need to review.”