Alex Albon believes there is “a bit of wiggle room” when it comes to issuing penalties for pushing other cars off the track.
The williams the driver received a five-second penalty when he was tried for forcing McLaren’s Lando Norris off the track in Saturday’s sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix.
It happened before Albon then sent Sebastian Vettel sliding through the gravel after cutting the Aston Martin car.
Both incidents happened while Albon was defending his position and he believed there should be more leeway when it comes to issuing penalties.
“I don’t think they were totally my fault,” he told Sky Sports F1. “I felt like a lot of their moves that I was defending, they were braking late on the outside. Unfortunately, I don’t have the same grip as them.
“I’m not trying to screw them obviously. Either way I think with Lando I lost the front and with Seb I just lost the charge as he circled the outside.
Not the result we wanted in the #F1Sprint, but we still have a race to run tomorrow. We won’t stop fighting ?#WeAreWilliams #Austrian GP
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) July 9, 2022
“There is a bit of wiggle room there. Lando passed me right after, so I felt like there was not much to do. But anyway, we clearly struggled there and our car is sensitive to traffic, it is sensitive to wind. We struggled, but hopefully we can come back stronger.
Norris, meanwhile, thought the extra time it took him to overtake meant he was unable to get his tires back in a good window.
“I think it had a lot,” he replied when asked if he thought being pushed off the track cost him time. “Especially because as the race progresses everyone’s tires deflate a lot, so I pushed hard at the start – that’s where you have your best opportunities.
“I just had to use the tires a lot to try to pass. I guess the only frustrating part was when he pushed me, I still had to try to pass him for a few more laps and use the tires even more.
“So I was very affected for the rest of the race, basically I couldn’t put the tires back in a good window. So it was difficult, but I still managed to pass and I made my race harder, we weren’t a mile away from the race ahead of us.
#Alex #Albon #thinks #wiggle #room #stewards #sanctioning #decisions