During Saturday’s sprint race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the only Chinese driver in Formula 1 history suffered an accident on the first lap with Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri, causing him to retire without having completed no turn.
Guanyu Zhou was forced to get out of his car, which was damaged by the contact with the Frenchman, and late in the afternoon, the FIA announced that Alfa Romeo broke the parc fermé , so he must start from the pitlane in Sunday’s race, instead of being 20th on the grid.
This does not entail any change, but the Chinese will avoid meeting the entire peloton at the first Tamburello chicane in a start that seems very close after what was seen in the sprint race, with several riders arriving in parallel to this area .
In the statement from the international federation they clarified what happened to Zhou : “When repairing car 24 after the Sprint session, it was determined that car 24 had infringed article 40.6 of the FIA Sporting Regulations for Formula 1, since the car used during the Sprint session was not covered and ready for FIA stamps within 2 hours of the
of the Sprint session”.
“Furthermore, in breach of article 40.9, it was determined that they continued to work on the car without supervision while it was in parc fermé conditions. The competitor admitted that modifications were made to the car.”
“In any event, given the lack of oversight, the stewards would have been entitled to infer that modifications were made to the car and/or changes to the suspension set-up.
of the suspension while the car was supposed to be in parc fermé conditions.”
“The sanction for non-compliance with the parc fermé conditions is specified in article 40.9 b), which consists of the pilot starting from the pitlane. Consequently, we have imposed the sanction stipulated in article 40.9 b),” the FIA ruled. .
