30/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Following incidents in the opening two races involving Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, the FIA has widened grid boxes by 20 cm.
At the season opener, Esteban Ocon was handed a 5s penalty for being in an "incorrect starting location" at the start, the Frenchman subsequently picking up a further penalty for serving the original penalty incorrectly.
Then, at Jeddah, exactly the same thing happened to Fernando Alonso who was also handed a 5s time penalty for being in an "incorrect starting location". Like Ocon, he was also handed a further penalty for not serving the original correctly but in this case his team successfully appealed the decision.
In both cases the drivers claimed that the reason they were 'out of position' was due to the fact that they were unable to see the markings on the grid.
"It seems like a stupid penalty that we get," Ocon told Channel 4. "but it's not as easy as it looks to park the car in the right place, especially with these big cars, how low we are sitting.
"I honestly didn't know if I was in the box or not," he admitted, "honestly it's very, very hard, and all the margins are nothing basically."
"It was my mistake," said Alonso. "I need to pay more attention to that. But it is a little bit also strange that in two races, two cars, Esteban and myself. We have similar things.
"So maybe this is cars, or the Halo, whatever it is interacting with the vision of how we position the car. But anyway, that was my mistake."
"It's really difficult to see where you've stopped," agreed Sergio Perez. "But you have no idea when you are in the car. You don't know if you are too far behind or too far forward.
"We need better visibility," he added, "to be able to come up with a better idea than we currently have. It's good there is a rule in place, but at the same time, sometimes it's like luck, to be honest, where you position yourself."
The FIA has now deemed that grid boxes are made 20cm wider, making them 2.7m compared to the 2.5m in Jeddah and 2.3m boxes used in 2022.
In addition, a central line has been added to help drivers guide their car into their grid slot.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Melbourne here.