Red Bull & Ferrari narrowly avoid penalty after “breaking curfew”

Red Bull & Ferrari narrowly avoid penalty after “breaking curfew”

Ferrari and Red Bull fighting for the lead

Red Bull and Ferrari recently broke the curfew at Canada, but did not get any penalty from the stewards. To understand what this means, it is important to understand what a “curfew” is, in F1. When it comes to following rules, F1 is extremely strict, and no exemption is made for any driver or team whatsoever may be the reason. One of the similar rules is the curfew rule; according to this, teams are not allowed to work on the car for a 9-hour gap, which was from 20:00 in Canada. This is to ensure that the cars do not get any cheeky upgrades, or such.

However, both Red Bull and Ferrari mechanics worked during the curfew hours on their cars breaking the rule. But there was no legal action taken by the stewards or the FIA on this. This is because all teams are allowed to “break curfew” upto 8 times during the entire course of a season, and would only be penalized after the same amount of time. A technical delegate’s report was submitted to the stewards stating that the teams had broken curfew but it has happened only for the first time in the season, and hence, no action should be taken. 

Also read: Ferrari reports Charles Leclerc’s power unit to be beyond repair following the failure in Spain

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Ferrari and Red Bull rivalry grows stronger

Red Bull and Ferrari team principals Christian Horner (L) and Mattia Binotto (R)
Ferrari has filed a protest against both Red Bull cars for an alleged crossing of the white line at pit exit.

This year after the fall from Mercedes and rise from Ferrari, Red Bull saw a change in their competitors. The season looked in the favor of Ferrari in the initial stages, but now after reliability issues from the Ferrari engine and wrong pit strategies, Ferrari have lost the lead in the championship title fight to Red Bull. The gap has only been increasing in the past races, after a double DNF from the team in Baku. 

In the driver’s championship as well, Charles Leclerc moved from 1st to 2nd, behind Verstappen, and after Baku, he hit the 3rd place, after Sergio Perez moved ahead of him. Both of the teams are working the hardest to make their cars the best, and are trying to get any penalties that could threaten their chances in any race.

Also read: “Shame they didn’t take steps to correct human error of Abu Dhabi GP,” Fans give their take on FIA’s intervention to solve porpoising issues

Also read: Carlos Sainz has “dismissed” Max Verstappen’s solution for porpoising