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F1 waives curfew and moves scrutineering due to freight issues
Formula 1 teams will not have to adhere to a curfew on Thursday night and can put their cars through scrutineering as late as Friday morning due to freight delays at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The majority of teams found themselves missing at least some freight until Thursday afternoon as a result of poor weather delaying its departure from Mexico City on Monday, resulting in a number of planes being stuck in Miami. The FIA has now confirmed it will not impose a curfew on Thursday night, giving teams the freedom to prepare their cars without using up one of two exemptions allowed each season.
“In accordance with Art 25.2 of the FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, the Stewards hereby give a waiver to all Competitors in the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix from the time limit in Art 25.1 and require that each Competitor be required to carry out initial scrutineering of his cars and submit the duly completed declaration no later than three (3) hours before the start of P1,” the stewards wrote to the teams.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner admits it will be a late night for his crew, with the freight only landing around midday local time on Thursday and still needing transporting to the circuit.
“I think the guys just have to work through the night,” Steiner said. “That’s the only thing we can do. I don’t know if we need to work through the (whole) night but it will be for sure a late night. All the rest of the regulations have been changed as of this morning.
“We know the curfew and the scrutineering times have been all adjusted. We can still do the event as planned, not change the timetable of the event. That’s the plan. I just know our stuff is in Brazil -- I don’t know about the others’ stuff.”
However, Steiner doesn’t believe F1’s intense calendar is to blame for the issue, given the fact that it has occurred between the first two races of a tripleheader of consecutive GP weekends.
“This could happen with a normal doubleheader. It’s one of the circumstances which happens now and then. Obviously if we were to have no doubleheaders it would be a lot easier to manage, I don’t even have to explain that, but in these days...
“There were some weather issues going out of Mexico City -- it was delayed. It could happen any time. As long as we have doubleheaders this can happen.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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