Verstappen-Piastri incident raises a question: Why does the FIA make it so complicated?

The FIA ​​could have prevented the discussion after the race in Jeddah from being mainly about an incident in the first corner. Perhaps a valuable lesson has been learned by the motor sport federation. 

Karun Chandhok was on the grid in Saudi Arabia. He looked ahead to the first corner and knew: This is going to cause trouble. The Former F1 driver was right, a few minutes later, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen were heavily fighting each other, with the latter eventually cutting the chicane, and according to the stewards, gained an advantage.

This resulted in Verstappen receiving a five-second time penalty, which probably cost him the victory in the Grand Prix. After the race, the incident was the topic of conversation, to this day, actually. One analyst believes that Verstappen did not deserve a penalty, another believes the five-second time penalty was justified, yet another thinks that the penalty should have been higher.

Problems Could Have Been Prevented

It's part of the charm of Formula 1; the discussions about whatever, often for days on end. But in this case, it all could have been avoided, Chandhok said later too. The former F1 driver wondered why the FIA had not placed some kind of obstacle on the inside of the chicane, so that a driver trying to cut the corner would immediately be disadvantaged.

Chandhok is, of course, absolutely right. There were plenty of options: gravel, a post you were not allowed to pass on the wrong side, or even a small wall. If one of those options had been in place, the incident would never have happened, and so there would not have been a debate on whether the penalty for Verstappen was justified.

So it remains remarkable why the FIA did not decide beforehand to place some kind of obstacle around the track. Now, the race in Jeddah has gone down in history as the race where Verstappen and his Red Bull Racing felt robbed. Absolutely unnecessary. Hopefully, the FIA learns a valuable lesson and will consider placing something to prevent such trouble in the future.

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