Grosjean wants stewards consistency after 'joke' penalty
Romain Grosjean remains annoyed by the "joke" grid penalty awarded to him by the Formula 1 stewards over the Chinese Grand Prix weekend after being deemed to have ignored yellow flags.
Grosjean was given a five-place grid drop after the stewards felt he did not back off enough in response to yellow flags shown at the end of Q1 in Shanghai following a crash for Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Haas driver vented his frustration at the time, taking to Twitter to prove he did back off significantly, and believes there should be greater consistency in stewarding decisions.
"I'm not angry, I just thought it was a joke," Grosjean said. "I think we need consistency and we need better judgement. That was a bit strange. I tweeted the data because I was so annoyed. There's nothing we can do. We cannot even appeal the decision."
Grosjean felt frustrated by the inability to respond to a stewards' decision, revealing that race director Charlie Whiting actually agreed that he had slowed down enough.
"We discussed with Charlie, and after this discussion I believe he agreed I had done enough, but the penalty was already done," Grosjean said.
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"What I think could have happened is you go there, you explain what happened and they call you back, and say that's what we're going to give you. Then you can argue a bit more. Because if you go there to the stewards and the first thing you do is give a lot of explanation, I did that, I did that, I didn't open the DRS, it looks like you are guilty."
Grosjean added that the death of Jules Bianchi from head injuries sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix acted as a stark reminder to the entire grid about responses to yellow flags, meaning stewards should not assume they do not take the cautions seriously.
"Hopefully we all know that this is a serious matter. Jules was a hard recall," Grosjean said.
"We know it's a serious matter. I believe I tweeted that as a serious matter, that's why I was really annoyed. I really swore a little bit."
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