If you thought the use of a bollard in Sunday’s French Grand Prix was a good tactical use of an object to thwart off-track excursion from gaining an advantage, then you’re going to be thrilled that the FIA are now looking at bringing more bollards to a grand prix weekend.
According to FIA race director Michael Masi, the drivers have all requested more bollards as a solution for other tracks on the Formula 1 calendar. Perhaps the French Grand Prix made sense with theme park sized parking lot run-off areas but will it translate to other circuits? Michael believes so:
“On a case by case basis absolutely. It is something, to be quite honest, that the drivers have asked for.
“Following a discussion that we had in Canada at the drivers’ meeting, we got here [to France] and there was a lot of run off out there, so it was prime situation and prime set of circumstances to actually try it.
Now, there may be a few people who aren’t that crazy about the idea including Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who followed the re-entry process by going around the bollard lane prior to rejoining the circuit but was received a penalty nonetheless for gaining an advantage.
“It is not an exact science, it is trial and error,” Masi added.
“I think it has certainly improved the rejoin from a safety perspective, and given the drivers some better vision following some feedback that we had from them here.
“It is certainly something that we will review and is part of the constant improvement.”
It’s often an interesting thing for me to watch as the FIA makes in-season changes to tracks and procedures by deploying more bollards due to the French Grand Prix results and yet they claim they can’t make any tire changes, regulation changes and the like to improve the racing. Some things they change immediately and others they haven’t changed in years.
Hat Tip: Autosport
