Warwick: FIA may change blocking rule during qualifying

Jul.5 - F1 may revisit the rules about impeding other drivers in qualifying, according to FIA steward Derek Warwick.

Warwick, a former F1 driver, was on the panel that decided to penalise Sebastian Vettel three places on the grid in Austria, even though Carlos Sainz did not blame the German for blocking him.

"I think it's the result of all of the drivers complaining that someone did this or someone did that," Ferrari's Vettel said.

Warwick, though, said the stewards had to punish the German last weekend.

"Our hands are tied," he said. "The rules demand it.

"It has already caught out other drivers further down the grid, so you can't punish them and not the big guys," the Briton told Auto Motor und Sport.

But Warwick revealed that the FIA is now thinking about a rule tweak.

"Maybe there would only be a penalty if the action was dangerous or the affected driver doesn't get into the next session or loses places," he said.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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