Why Verstappen’s inch-perfect grid stop was legal

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – and Australian Grand Prix winner – was scrutinised as fans tried to determine if the defending world champion was outside of his grid box.

In the last two grand prix weekends, the FIA have clamped down on drivers being just outside their respective grid boxes. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was the first victim to fall foul of the increased scrutiny in Bahrain while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was the next culprit, two weeks later, in Saudi Arabia.

So it’s no surprise when Verstappen appeared to be over the limit in his grid box, fans scrutinised the Red Bull driver’s grid positioning. However, the FIA never investigated Verstappen for the incident at the time but later cleared him, despite no prior investigations.

Needing to survive a restart to secure his second win of the season, with only a couple of laps left, Verstappen had to get his launch off the line in the best possible way. To help with that objective, the Red Bull driver maximised the amount of space available to keep ahead of his rivals, who were comfortably behind the white line.

A video quickly circulated online which indicated that Verstappen initially stopped on his marks, but realised he had a slim amount of available space and edged his car forward which looked to show Verstappen out of position. However, according to the regulations, Verstappen got his grid positioning down to perfection as he stopped his RB19 directly on the line and not passed it.

According to the sporting regulations, the FIA state:

“Any part of the contact patch of its front tyres (are) outside of the lines (front and sides) at the time of the start signal.”

So while Verstappen was stopped on the white line of his grid box, the defending world champion’s inch-perfect stop still had a valid starting position – although it was on the limit.

Had any part of the contact patch of the Dutchman’s tyres been passed the white lines then the world champion would’ve received a penalty for being out of position.

https://twitter.com/FloFloF1/status/1642426257550745606

That’s all for the article; Why Verstappen’s inch-perfect grid stop was legal!

What did you think, in your own opinion, was Verstappen inside or outside his pit box? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Australian GP: Verstappen wins in red-flag-filled and chaotic race
• Australian GP: Verstappen on pole as both Mercedes round out top three
• Australian GP: Verstappen top in final practice as Perez struggles
• Australian GP: Alonso on top of FP2 in damp conditions
• Australian GP: Verstappen leads down-under ahead of Hamilton and Perez
• Wolff sees ‘promising’ signs at Mercedes F1 factory

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.