Why Yuki Tsunoda escaped F1 penalty for part in messy Monza restart

Yuki Tsunoda has kept hold of his Formula 1 points finish at the Italian Grand Prix after being cleared over an alleged restart infringement. 

The Japanese driver finished 10th and scored his first point since returning to F1 as a replacement for Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls at Monza, but he was at risk of losing it due to a post-race stewards’ investigation. 

Tsunoda was flagged for parking out of his grid box as he took up 14th position on the starting grid at the restart following a lengthy red flag period caused by Charles Leclerc’s huge crash. 

However, the FIA stewards determined that Tsunoda was not in what constitutes as being a “false start” position and also considered the account of the race director, who said he took the decision to commence an extra formation lap out of caution. 

As a result, the stewards took no further action on the matter and cleared Tsunoda of wrongdoing. 

“Car 22 approached the grid initially heading for the left hand side of the grid, then realising he was headed for the wrong grid position, the driver changed direction and positioned his car in the correct grid box and in the correct position within the grid box. This was verified by the Stewards with video from multiple camera angles,” the stewards noted. 

“The Race Director, in evidence, stated that it was his call, based on the behaviour of the car on the approach to the grid box, to commence an extra formation lap. He stated he was not comfortable starting the race with the car in that position.

“The team representative stated that:

“(i) The car was not in a “false start” position – referring to Article B5.1.1c of the F1 regulations, because no contact patch of the front tyres was outside the grid box lines (front and side)

“(ii) At the Drivers meeting, the Race Director advised that for the start, the track limits were the pit walls and in this case, even though the car was pointed to the right, it had at least 4 metres of space to move off from the start

“(iii) No other driver was impacted by the position of Car 22

“(iv) The driver of Car 22 was not the “cause” of the extra formation lap.

“(v) At no time was the team advised that Race Control considered Car 22 to be the cause of the extra formation lap.

“The Stewards agree with the points above and consider that the extra formation lap resulted from the Race Director’s assessment of the situation, rather than being directly caused by the driver of Car 22.

“Further, Article B5.9.4 goes on to specify that if a driver who causes the extra formation lap and is then able to start the extra formation lap, he must enter the Pit Lane at the end of the lap and start from the Pit Lane. It is only then, if the driver fails to do this, that the mandatory penalty of a Stop and Go penalty is imposed.

“In other words, the penalty is for failing to come into the Pit Lane and start from there.  The penalty is not for causing the extra formation lap, if indeed, he caused the extra formation lap in the first place.

“A critical issue emerges here, in that in order to comply with the requirement to enter and start from the Pit Lane, a driver would need to know that he was the cause of the extra formation lap. The team representative quoted situations where extra formation laps have been commenced due to extraneous circumstances such as the position of a photographer etc. In this case, no message was sent to the team or the driver, advising them that they were the cause of the extra formation lap.

“The team, based on the fact that the car was positioned within its starting grid box in compliance with the regulations, had, in our determination, no reason to instruct its driver to enter and start from the Pit Lane.

“Accordingly, irrespective of whether or not the driver directly caused the extra formation lap, the team and driver were unaware that they were being considered as the cause, therefore we determine that we are unable to impose a Stop and Go penalty in this case, and decide to take no further action.

"We note that the Race Director acted in good faith and out of an abundance of caution in ordering an extra formation lap.

“We further note that the FIA might wish to consider implementing a process to advise teams and drivers if they are considered to be the cause of an extra formation lap, so that they are then able to comply with the requirements of Article B5.9.4”