The Audi Components 1 staff has notified the FIA of its intention to enchantment in opposition to Yuki Tsunoda‘s non-penalty within the Italian Grand Prix.
Amid confusion over the place he was imagined to line up on a lap 6 restart, Tsunoda parked in his appropriate 14th grid slot, however at an angle in direction of the within wall. Race director Rui Marques was “not comfy” with Tsunoda’s place, so imposed an additional formation lap.
In line with Article B5.9.4 of the F1 2026 sporting rules, “any driver who induced an additional formation lap, and is then capable of begin the, or any subsequent, further formation lap should enter the Pit Lane on the finish of the lap and should begin … from the tip of the Pit Lane.”
However in line with the FIA race stewards, Tsunoda did not technically trigger the additional formation lap as a result of the race director acted out of an abundance of warning, Tsunoda wasn’t out of his grid slot and did not affect different opponents. The crux of the difficulty is that race management hadn’t knowledgeable Racing Bulls that its driver had induced the additional formation lap both, so subsequently the staff had no cause to inform Tsunoda to start out from the pitlane.
Tsunoda escaped a stop-and-go penalty and went on to attain the ultimate level in tenth. The choice to not punish the Japanese driver impacted Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who crossed the road in eleventh.
Consequently, Audi has notified the FIA of its intention to enchantment in opposition to the non-penalty for Tsunoda.
“Following the Italian Grand Prix, we raised a priority relating to the applying of Article B5.9.4, which requires a driver who causes an additional formation lap to enter the pit lane and resume the race from there,” Audi mentioned in a press release. “The Stewards issued a call of No Additional Motion, and we’ve notified our intention to enchantment. Because the matter is now topic to the FIA enchantment course of, we won’t remark additional at this stage.”
Gabriel Bortoleto would have gained a degree in Monza if Yuki Tsunoda had been handed a penalty.
Photograph by: Andy Hone/ LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
Per article 15.4 of the FIA’s Worldwide Sporting Code, opponents have one hour after the stewards’ choice to inform their intention to enchantment. That doesn’t imply Audi is definitely interesting in opposition to the decision simply but. Nevertheless it offers the staff a further 96-hour time window to additional examine the case to see if there is a component to enchantment in opposition to earlier than following by way of on it.
Of their verdict, the stewards wrote: “The additional formation lap resulted from the Race Director’s evaluation of the state of affairs, quite than being instantly attributable to the driving force of Automobile 22.
“Additional, Article B5.9.4 goes on to specify that if a driver who causes the additional formation lap and is then capable of begin the additional formation lap, he should enter the Pit Lane on the finish of the lap and begin from the Pit Lane. It’s only then, if the driving force fails to do that, that the obligatory penalty of a Cease and Go penalty is imposed.
“In different phrases, the penalty is for failing to come back into the Pit Lane and begin from there. The penalty just isn’t for inflicting the additional formation lap, if certainly, he induced the additional formation lap within the first place.
“A crucial subject emerges right here, in that in an effort to adjust to the requirement to enter and begin from the Pit Lane, a driver would wish to know that he was the reason for the additional formation lap.”
The stewards added: “The staff, primarily based on the truth that the automotive was positioned inside its beginning grid field in compliance with the rules, had, in our willpower, no cause to instruct its driver to enter and begin from the Pit Lane.
“Accordingly, no matter whether or not or not the driving force instantly induced the additional formation lap, the staff and driver have been unaware that they have been being thought of because the trigger, subsequently we decide that we’re unable to impose a Cease and Go penalty on this case, and resolve to take no additional motion.”
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