F1: Pierre Gasly likely to be banned from Azerbijan GP (No!) (Update)

Pierre Gasly has escaped punishment from the FIA for his late crash in the Australian Grand Prix to spare the Alpine driver from a possible Formula 1 race ban.

No action was taken on the incident, hence Gasly lucked out.

Gasly drifted over the circuit to pinch his teammate against the wall.

Both Alpines were eliminated as a result of the contact, with the duo drivers  summoned to the stewards for allegedly breaching an article of the FIA International Sporting Code pertaining to driving standards.

The code of conduct reads: “Causing a collision, repetition of serious mistakes or the appearance of a lack of control over the car (such as leaving the track) will be reported to the stewards and may entail the imposition of penalties up to and including the disqualification of any driver concerned.”

The FIA reasoning states: “The stewards heard from the driver of Car 10 (Pierre Gasly), the driver of Car 31 (Esteban Ocon), a team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and in-car video evidence and determined that it was a first-lap racing incident.

“Both cars recognized and accepted this as such. In the circumstances, we took no further action.”

No action was taken by the Stewards because Ocon did not want to force the issue of blame where it belonged – on his Alpine teammate Gasly – therefore, Gasly will not get banned as he should have been.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Pierre Gasly is set to be banned from the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after he crashed into Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon in the latter part of today’s Australian Grand Prix.

Gasly turned across the track without checking his mirrors, and consequently made contact with his team-mate, forcing them both to immediately retire.

The former Red Bull driver is likely to be adjudged to have been responsible for the collision, and he will be awarded additional penalty points.

Coming into the 2023 Australian Grand Prix, Gasly was sitting on 10 penalty points.

This will bring his 12-month running total to above 12 points, leading to an automatic one-race ban.

Two of these penalty points will expire on 22 May – one year after picked them up for causing a collision with Lance Stroll at the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.

Alpine recently tried to wipe clean some of Gasly’s penalty points, but this move was blocked by some of their rivals.

Driver Penalty Points as They Stand