F1 drivers, including Max Verstappen, have expressed sympathy that Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon did not line up correctly on the starting grid due to the “poor visibility” of the current generation F1 car. At the season opener in Bahrain, Alpine’s Ocon was penalized for misplacing his car on the grid frame.
The same thing happened to Aston Martin’s Alonso at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where he received a five-second time penalty for starting too far to the left of the box. However, Alonso finished on the podium behind the winning Sergio Perez and Red Bull teammate Verstappen following an additional penalty for misfiring the first was rescinded. Max Verstappen has sympathized with Alonso and Ocon, saying the lack of visibility from current F1 cars makes it difficult to line up for the correct grid spot. The longer nose, fatter tires and added wheel blow of today’s cars have the side effect of reducing the driver’s field of vision even further than a typical single-seater. “The visibility inside the car is really bad. That’s probably the main problem that sometimes it doesn’t fit perfectly right in the box,” said two-time F1 world champion Verstappen. “It hurts when that happens, but it’s like a white line with a track limit. Did you gain something by going wide or not, did you gain something by running outside of it? “It can be controversial.” “I think we need rules at some point. It looks really silly when people start taking advantage of being left or right. I don’t know how we can do better.” But,” Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez agreed, explaining that there is an element of luck involved in achieving goals. “It’s really difficult just to see where you stopped,” said Perez, who admitted that he stopped early for safety. “In my opinion, I did too much, I stopped too early. But when I’m in the car, I don’t know. I don’t know if I went too far back or too far forward.” “It’s nice to have the rules in place, but at the same time, to be honest, it’s kind of a matter of luck where you are,” said Mercedes driver and GPDA director George George. Russell called for ‘common sense’ as he felt Alonso’s penalty was too extreme. “It’s incredibly difficult,” Russell reported. “We are sitting very low and if you change branches you can probably only see the top four or five inches of the tire and you can’t really see the ground itself.” You can’t even see the yellow line, let alone the white line that defines the position of the .” “It’s really, really tough, so I think you need to use a little more common sense in this regard.”
