Stroll crashed into Ricciardo’s car under the safety car as the cars were getting closer together for a restart on Lap 27. Ricciardo’s car got damaged, and he had to retire. Oscar Piastri’s car also got damaged when Ricciardo’s car hit him.
The stewards blamed Stroll for not being careful enough to avoid the crash. They gave him a 10-second penalty and two penalty points. Stroll thought the punishment was unfair.
His team boss Krack supported Stroll and wondered why the decision was made so quickly after the crash.
Krack said, “The verdict came very quickly without fully understanding… I thought it was too fast and too harsh, too quick of a decision. It seemed like a chain reaction in the end. Fernando Alonso locked up, and another car was behind him, I think everyone was a bit surprised there. I wish they had looked at it more closely. We tried to talk about it, but they quickly decided that Lance was at fault. And he got a 10-second penalty, on top of the front wing damage.”
Ricciardo was upset because Stroll didn’t take responsibility for the crash, even though Ricciardo thought Stroll should have been paying attention to what was happening in front of him instead of focusing on Turn 14.
Krack said, “These situations happen at the front. You can always say you need to be more careful. But if you’re too careful and you lose more than one car length during a restart, everyone says ‘are you asleep?’ Incidents like this happen at different tracks.
Remember the crash we had in Mugello in 2020, where many cars were involved? This is the unpredictable movement that happens during a safety car restart. We have incidents like this every year, and they will continue to happen.”
