The FIA have introduced new instructions to the post-race procedure for all personnel at the Miami Grand Prix in a bid to avoid any chance of Esteban Ocon’s near-miss from last week repeating itself. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix created a strange scenario where Ocon was able to go the entire race without needing to make a pit stop.
F1 rules stipulate that every car needs to make at least one stop during a race and use two different tyre compounds with Ocon choosing to wait until the final lap to do so. Track officials in Baku last week appeared unaware that Ocon still needed to come into the pits with the race still ongoing as a group of people gathered at the pit entry.
It led to a scary situation as Ocon raced into the pits with the small group having to jump out of the way at the last minute to avoid absolute disaster. F1 and the FIA issued an apology to Ocon in the aftermath of the incident with an investigation launched into how it the whole situation was able to happen.
And the FIA have acted by changing the post-race procedure instructions, adding threats to ‘remove the passes’ of the people who go against the pit-lane rules. The new addition to the rules reads: “Team mechanics are not permitted to move from their garages to the Parc Ferme with cooling fans in anticipation of their cars stopping at the end of the race until after the last car has taken the chequered flag.
“Any other personnel or VIPs are not permitted to enter the pit lane until after the last car has taken the chequered flag. Any infringement will result in the removal of passes from the team(s) in question from subsequent events, and potential reporting of the infringing team(s) to the Stewards.”
Part of the wording for following section of the post-race procedure was also altered. The instructions previously stated how personnel who are not team mechanics, officials, television crews and photographers will not “be allowed in the designated area at this time”.
But that’s now been changed to state how “no one else will be allowed in the designated area once the cars are in the Parc Ferme area”.
But that’s now been changed to state how “no one else will be allowed in the designated area once the cars are in the Parc Ferme area”. Ocon admitted this week that he feels confident the changes made by the FIA will be respected by everyone in the paddock.
“The FIA has apologised and Formula 1,” he told Sky Sports News. “They assured us that this is not going to happen anymore. Thank God nothing happened and so all good from now.
“We are racing at the time. It’s of course normal that there shouldn’t be anyone in the pit lane until after we are racing like that. These things are normally not going to happen, the FIA has assured us that they are making sure they are changing the protocol and making sure there is no one in the pit lane until the end, so I’m confident we will not see that anymore.”
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