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After observing the events at the Italian Grand Prix, Mattia Binotto, team principal of Scuderia Ferrari, said that he believes the FIA should change the number of engines a driver can use in a season without getting penalized. The starting grid at Monza saw as many as nine drivers take grid penalties - almost half of the grid.
What was interesting to note was that the maximum of these penalties was due to the new engine components used by drivers. This usually happens when teams need to change PUs after a long run, and is common with all teams. In light of that, Binotto is of the opinion that FIA should reconsider the number of components a driver can use:
"It’s difficult for a fan, I think, to see a car on pole and not start on pole because he got grid penalties. So maybe the three PUs per drivers is too little at that stage for what we have achieved. Maybe it needs to be reconsidered for the next seasons."
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As per the current regulations, a driver can use up to three PUs without serving a penalty. But after installing a fourth PU, the driver is given a 10-place grid penalty, post which, every new PU comes with a 5-place grid penalty.
Ferrari fans support Mattia Binotto's idea
The Tifosi (Ferrari fans) also believe that three PUs per season is too less, and that the number should increase to five. They showed their support for Ferrari through Twitter posts about the same.
Here are some of them:
Mattia Binotto believes regulations are not "clear enough"
When talking about the grid penalties and the final starting grid for the drivers, the Italian team principal mentioned that the reason why it took so long for the FIA to release the grid was because the rules and regulations are not "clear enough." He said:
"The reason why it took so long [to publish the grid] is that there are certainly different interpretations and the regulation is not clear enough."
He also believes that this is something that should be paid attention to in the future to avoid any confusion in the teams about the starting grid or any kind of penalty that is to be served by a driver:
"That's something we need to address certainly for the future - I think not only how we decide the grid position based on the penalties, I think the amount of penalties we got as well is too many."
The two major reasons why Ferrari is almost, if not completely, out of the championship battle are strategy and reliability. The team faced a lot of issues with their engines at the start of the season.
Charles Leclerc had failures during both the Spanish & the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and Carlos Sainz suffered from the same problem. This made the team use newer engine components, which saw both the drivers serve multiple grid penalties, costing precious points.
