Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto have changed chassis as a result of their crashes in yesterday’s qualifying session.
Drivers are routinely required to start from the pit lane if their teams make set-up changes to their cars under parc ferme conditions. However this does not apply in these cases and both drivers will be able to start from the positions they qualified in.
This is especially important for Piastri, who is leading the world championship. He qualified ninth on the grid, two places behind his team mate and closest championship rival Lando Norris.
F1’s rules impose parc ferme conditions upon cars from the start of qualifying until the start of the grand prix. This regulation states that teams “may not modify any part on the car or make changes to the set-up of the suspension whilst the car is being held under parc ferme conditions.” If this does happen “the relevant driver must start the race from the pit lane.”
However the rules list several exceptions from parc ferme conditions. Teams are allowed to perform “a change of car […] if that car has suffered genuine accident damage or has suffered a significant failure or fault, as defined in article 27.1, necessitating a change of survival cell.”
The rules also state this regulation cannot be used to perform a set-up change to a car without incurring a grid penalty: “All components of the replacement car must be the same in design and similar in mass, inertia, and function to the original car. The set-up of the suspension must be the same.”
Piastri, who hit the barrier at turn 15 in Q3, is therefore permitted to start from ninth on the grid. Colapinto, who crashed at turn four in Q1, will line up 16th. Alpine confirmed they have also replaced the gearbox on his car.
The same situation previously happened at the Hungarian Grand Prix last year. Yuki Tsunoda crashed during Q3, forcing his RB team to change his car’s survival cell, yet he was still able to start from 10th place.
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