24/04/2025 06:30
Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri's first-corner incident at the
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has brought the debate surrounding racing
guidelines and driving standards back into sharp focus. Tensions on
the subject came to a head towards the end of last season in the
midst of numerous clashes involving the Dutchman and McLaren's
other driver, Lando Norris. With the issue front and centre,
drivers agreed on how they wanted wheel-to-wheel racing to be
policed and enforced. It included that the driver on the inside is
within their right to force the car on the outside wide, as long as
they have correctly claimed the apex of the corner. But, in the
wake of the first lap incident at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit,
Verstappen's prior on-track skirmishes were used as a reference
point to be benchmarked. However, Jonathan Wheatley does not
believe any two incidents in F1 are alike, no matter how similar
they might at first appear. The Stake team principal pointed out
that he cannot recall witnessing "two identical incidents" given
how "dynamic" overtaking in F1 is. "I don't think I've ever seen
two identical incidents," the former Red Bull sporting director
told media, including RacingNews365 . "Such a dynamic situation,
overtaking. "You've got to take into account the tyre compounds,
you've got to take into account if somebody's got the run on
another driver, you've got to take into account if a driver's got
DRS and another driver doesn't have DRS. "And then through all of
that, and all of the gamesmanship that goes on, you have to pick a
braking point. And once you've picked a braking point, they've
picked it." Adapting to 'very different' regulations Wheatley's
remarks came in response to being asked if he felt the rules
surrounding overtaking were as good as they can ever be. Drawing on
his experience, the Briton highlighted how the guidelines need to
retain an element of flexibility and the potential to change and
develop over time - as they have over the winter, and may need to
again next year. With a new era of F1 regulations looming, Wheatley
underlined how different overtaking, and by extension on track
incidents, could look next season. "There's been situations where
I've had conversations with drivers I've worked with [and] said,
'Look, you could have given him another two centimetres there, and
it would have made the stewards' life a bit easier... The stewards
have to decide from this if you've left a car's width' and what
have you," he explained. "I love that element of the sport, and I
think the FIA and the drivers have worked really hard on the sort
of racing rules that they're working to at the moment... as long as
we're open-minded and they're evolving as the cars change. "Who
knows what the '26 cars are going to be like. We don't know what
overtaking manoeuvres are going to look like in '26. "What we do
know is that the ones now are very different than they were when we
had simpler power trains."
