The Italian Grand Prix grid was quite frankly a mess.
Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton was the only driver to start the race where he had originally qualified.
Both Red Bull Racing drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo who qualified second and third both suffered hefty penalties, usually this would have seen them start on the back row of the grid.
However at Monza, they were just two of nine drivers who suffered grid penalties.
This left spectators and pundits scratching their heads.
The whole point of the grid penalties for engine or gearbox infringements is to keep the costs of Formula One down.
Teams are suppose to try and go through the 20 race season with a certain number of parts, this includes different aspects of the power-unit and gear box.
However we are now at a stage of the season where teams have already used up their seasons allocation.
When it hits just one or two drivers at a time it’s not quite so bad, but in Italy there was one scenario where a driver took a ten place grid penalty and started one place in front of where he qualified!
It’s a complete farce, but Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer has defended the current regulations.
‘you can’t say we have to control costs but not have this kind of stuff because they are incongruent those two statements. We have to remember why they are there and one of the reasons was cost saving.
‘In the old days, before we had a set number of engines per driver you can use, you could use one engine per race and that cost a lot of money. he told motorsport.com.
That said, the penalties are being looked at by Formula 1 chief Ross Brawn who will hold talks with the FIA.
‘It’s an aspect of the regulations that needs looking at closely, because if it’s right in principle, its implementation is definitely difficult for fans to swallow,’ he told motorsport.com.
‘We’ve got some ideas about how to change it and we need to discuss it in detail with the FIA to see how to improve the situation.’
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