Ide reprimanded, not punished.
Performance criteria permitting, Yuji Ide will be on the grid at the European Grand Prix in two weeks' time, and able to take up whatever position he earns in qualifying at the Nurburgring.
Although a little spurious to suggest that the Japanese rookie would qualify anywhere other than the back row without engine penalties affecting the rest of the field, Ide could have been subjected to a positional penalty following his altercation with Christijan Albers in Sunday's San Marino round.
Performance criteria permitting, Yuji Ide will be on the grid at the European Grand Prix in two weeks' time, and able to take up whatever position he earns in qualifying at the Nurburgring.
Although a little spurious to suggest that the Japanese rookie would qualify anywhere other than the back row without engine penalties affecting the rest of the field, Ide could have been subjected to a positional penalty following his altercation with Christijan Albers in Sunday's San Marino round.
The Dutchman's Midland car made contact with Ide's Super Aguri entry as the Japanese tried to muscle through at Villeneuve, rolling five times before coming to rest upside down in the gravel. Albers was naturally aggrieved to have had a promising weekend end so early in the race, and slammed both Ide and more experienced Takuma Sato - although the former Jordan and BAR driver has not been directly involved in any incidents - for being to aggressive and ambitious in the opening stages of grands prix.
Ide was later reprimanded by the race stewards at Imola for causing the collision, which also damaged his suspension, but the punishment stopped short of any penalty for future races.
Ide's performance is under constant review by the Super Aguri team, which had hoped that he would be closer to Sato's pace once he had got to grips with the car after stepping up from years in Formula Nippon in Japan. Although individual sessions suggested that a breakthrough would not be far away in Italy at the weekend, there was still a fair gap between the two drivers, leading to continued suggestions that one of Honda's development drivers, most like the works team's Anthony Davidson, could find his way into the second race seat.
At the moment, the greater prospect is that Davidson could be loaned to the Honda-powered Aguri team for development purposes, as its attempts to get both its Arrows-derived SA05 closer to the pace of Midland and also tried to fast-track the already-delayed introduction of its first bespoke chassis.
