Vasseur 'not okay' with Zhou penalty call in Jeddah

Alfa Romeo team boss Fred Vasseur says he "was not okay" with the Jeddah stewards' decision to punish Guanyu Zhou for not handing back a position gained against Williams driver Alex Albon.

Ahead of the 2022 season, F1 teams and drivers were informed by the FIA that it will no longer request that a driver give back a position for gaining an advantage by running off track.

it is now the responsibility of the teams to make their own call - within one lap - on whether a driver should cede back a position, although the stewards retain the right to investigate and penalize a move if a driver is deemed to have unfairly gained an advantage.

A contact at the start with McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo dropped Zhou to the back of the field from where the Chinese driver worked his way back up to P12 during his first stint.

But on lap 4, Zhou gained the upper hand over Albon on the approach to Jeddah's Turn 1 but then ran wide at the corner.

The Alfa charger inquired with his team about the move and was told that he was safe, that he did not need to give back the position.

However, shortly after and much to the Alfa pitwall's surprise, a message displayed on the timing screens informed that Zhou's maneuver at Turn 1 was under investigation.

The stewards eventually deemed that by running wide at Turn 1 after passing Albon, Zhou had gained an advantage. The Alfa charger was subsequently hit with a five-second penalty.

• Read also: Bottas was 'looking good' for P6 in Jeddah ahead of DNF

"I'm not okay with the decision of the stewards on Albon, because he was miles away," argued an unhappy Vasseur, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"He overtook Albon much before the braking point, and he went straight. And he slowed down to avoid to have an advantage.

"Zhou asked us, so we had a look on the video. And he overtook him and Albon was almost behind him. And so we said, 'No no, it's fair, it's fine.'

"Okay, if they are consistent, and it's always like this, it's always like this.

"But we will remind them next time. It's not that he went straight when he overtook Albon. He overtook Albon, and then he went straight."

Zhou's miseries in Jeddah weren't over however. While serving his five-second penalty, his front jack man mistakenly touched the Alfa during the short period before the team undertook a tyre change.

The penalty was thus deemed as having not been served, which forced Zhou to return to the pits a second time to serve a drive-through sanction.

Vasseur explained the error by radio communication issue.

"We made the mistake, because the mechanic had an issue with the radio, and he touched the car during the pit stop," said the Frenchman.

"And then Zhou had the drive through. And even with all this mess he was able to come back to P11, and not far away from Lewis [Hamilton], and P9 and P10. I'm very pleased with the pace on both cars, but it is like it is."

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