To say that Daniil Kvyat wasn’t happy about the way the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix played out for him would be a bit of an understatement.
Kvyat lashed out at the F1 stewards Sunday after being issued two penalties for violating a single article in the sporting regulations, according to Motorsport.com.
“They should cancel this stupid rule,” Kvyat said, via Motorsport.com. “Who is this rule for? Are we taxi drivers here or Formula One drivers? I don’t understand this. It’s a circus, a stupid (expletive) circus.”
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver was issued a drive-through penalty for returning to his 11th-place grid spot after he got a slow start to the formation lap, as he didn’t recover all the positions before crossing the first safety car line. However, the rules state he should have been handed a 10-second stop-and-go.
Once the stewards realized their mistake, rather than accept that Kvyat already served one penalty and move on, they ordered him to fulfill the stop-and-go as well.
Kvyat reportedly said he wants to talk to the FIA about the mishandling of his sanctioning. He also noted he wants to learn whether responsibility for the blunder falls on FIA race director Charlie Whiting’s shoulders, or somebody else in race control.
“I want to understand first of all who does this job,” Kvyat said. “All I know is our team manager was for 10 laps arguing with the FIA that we shouldn’t get another additional penalty and they said ‘no, sorry, we have this.’ ”
The Russian is far from the first F1 driver to denounce the inconsistent rulings of the stewards. Kimi Raikkonen did so after last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, and Sebastian Vettel famously called Whiting out by name during his tirade over the team radio during last year’s Mexican Grand Prix.
Thumbnail photo via Red Bull Content Pool
