Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari driver, had an eventful Monaco Grand Prix race. At the start, he had a collision with another driver, Oscar Piastri, which caused a puncture in his tire. This mishap almost ended his race. However, just as he was making his way back to the pits, a red flag was raised due to another incident involving Sergio Perez and two Haas cars. This changed everything for Sainz.
Normally, a red flag wouldn’t benefit a driver much, but this time it did. According to Formula 1’s rules, the grid order after a red flag is determined by the last known positions of the cars. Despite being far behind initially, Sainz found out he would resume the race from his original third-place position. This decision puzzled some, but it was based on the FIA’s method of determining grid positions.
The FIA couldn’t rely on GPS data, so it used the most reliable reference point, safety car line two (SC2), which is situated on the track’s first turn exit. At the time of the red flag, all cars had crossed this line. Therefore, Sainz’s position at that moment was reinstated for the restart.
Zhou, driving for Sauber, played a crucial role in this. He was delayed behind the Perez crash and hadn’t crossed the SC2 line when the red flag was raised. As a result, his position was used as a reference for determining the grid order.
While some, like Lando Norris, questioned the decision, Sainz’s team boss, Andrea Stella, believed it was the correct application of the rules. The timing of Zhou’s positioning proved fortunate for Sainz, allowing him to resume the race from his original position despite the earlier setback.
In racing, as in life, timing can make all the difference, and Zhou’s timing inadvertently became a pivotal factor in Sainz’s performance in the Monaco Grand Prix.
