Ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, F1 race director Niels Wittich announced a change of stance regarding drivers trying to build-up gaps ahead of them in the pitlane in qualifying.
Following a spate of incidents where drivers have stopped at the end of the pitlane to help them get space ahead of them for their outlap, stacking up rivals behind them, such behaviour has now been outlawed.
For both main qualifying and the sprint shootout, F1 drivers are now not allowed to stop in the fast lane of the pits.
Furthermore, if they want to try to create a gap ahead of them, they must drive slowly on the way out of the pits and leave enough space for rivals to pass them on the right before the pitlane exit line ends.
But while Wittich’s plan has good intentions, Magnussen is very sceptical about it working as he thinks the new approach will instead trigger traffic jams inside the pit exit line, rather than in the pits.
With drivers having a maximum laptime imposed on them from safety car line 2, Magnussen reckons the new restrictions will result in a bottleneck right before that line.
Asked by Autosport about whether he thought the FIA’s new stance was right, Magnussen said: “Honestly, I tried to understand it this morning and I’m not sure I understand what we need to do.
“I think they say that if you want to go slow in the pitlane, you have to go in the slow lane - which means then they [other cars] can overtake you.
Source: Autosport