31 October 2023 , 08:20
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Martin Brundle is in full agreement with McLaren boss Andrea Stella and wants Formula 1 chiefs to find a "better solution" to avoid the pitlane chaos we saw ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix.
During the qualifying session on Saturday, Max Verstappen and George Russell each avoided penalties from the FIA after blocking the pitlane exit. The drivers had been parked at the end of the pitlane but positioned themselves before the white safety car line, holding up all those behind, as they made a suitable gap on their qualifying laps.
To avoid potential high-speed collisions, a maximum time allowed between that line and the other safety car line shortly before pit entry was introduced and, as Brundle notes, it's largely worked.
It can, however, lead to drivers employing an element of gamesmanship and Verstappen was in hot water earlier this year in Singapore for a similar dispute, but like this past weekend escaped without punishment.
After McLaren driver Lando Norris was held up in Mexico City on Saturday, team principal Stella declared: "I think immediate action needs to be taken. It's not a good spectacle. It makes the operations very difficult because you send your car and you actually don't know when your car is going to get on track.
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"It puts all drivers too much at the mercy of the other drivers. And this for me starts to be unfair. We need to create policy aspects and ruling aspects to control the situation, which I think is just inappropriate."
Brundle agrees, suggesting in his Sky Sports column: "Perhaps [drivers] should be obliged to stop in the middle lane rather than the fast lane. However, there are two issues there, the cars wouldn't then be spaced out particularly well on track, and some circuits like Monaco don't have the space for a spare middle pit lane like that.
Have your say! Should the FIA change the pitlane rules? Let us know your stance in the comments section.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella wants to see "immediate action" (Gongora/NurPhoto via Getty Images)"It does seem unfair for teams positioned at the far end of the pit lane, and those drivers who need to get out and get on with regard to their qualifying lap preparation. For now, I guess we have to explain that it's an acceptable practice by precedent, let the drivers and teams sort it out among themselves, and look for a better solution."
British-Belgian driver Norris believes that issuing penalties would go some way in preventing the kind of chaos we saw on Saturday. "I think it's something that we've said is going to happen and is going to be problematic," the McLaren star explained.
"Before you didn't see too many bad scenarios, now you've seen some worse scenarios, because people are wanting the gaps to be even bigger. Everyone's kind of pushing the limits more and more because you can get away with it.
"And because no one's been penalised for anything, even when people have been in the wrong or should have been penalised, people are just doing massive gaps now."