Franco Colapinto had a bittersweet start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix.
Although he showed good performance on board his A526, even with a purely reflective maneuver at the start that surprised everyone, the Argentine was conditioned from the start by a 10-second penalty.The violation occurred just before the return of training at the Albert Park circuit. Colapinto was ready to start the race when a team mechanic pushed his car slightly backwards on the grid. The maneuver was carried out when the cars could no longer be touched by members of the teams, which prompted the intervention of the
sports commissioners.The regulations are clear in this regard. According to Article B5.5.5 a) i) of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, if a member of the team touches the car or has equipment connected after the 15-second signal is displayed before the training lap, the driver should start the race from the pit lane. Otherwise, a "stop and go" penalty applies.
As the situation was noticed when the competition was already under way, the curators decided to apply this sanction to the Argentine driver, who had to go through the pits without stopping, losing around 30 seconds and falling to the last place in the peloton.
In that regard, Steve Nielsen, acknowledged that the team made a procedural error that led to the sanction. After the race, Alpine's sports director explained that the team took responsibility for what happened
.“Yes, there is a rule. It's not a new rule, it's a long-standing rule that states that you can't work on the car after 15 seconds before the start of the training lap,” he said in a dialogue with Motorsport
