Brown: Penalty for causing red flag in qualifying 'a simple solution'

McLaren boss Zak Brown supports Carlos Sainz's call for a penalty to be levied upon any driver causing a red flag in qualifying, saying such a sanction is simple and easy to implement.

The topic, which has been debated in the past, was tabled by Sainz last month in the wake of the team order saga at Red Bull that marked the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

At Interlagos, Max Verstappen ignored an order from his team's pitwall to let Perez overtake him to boost the Mexican's points tally in the Drivers' championship.

There was a widespread view in the paddock that Verstappen's firm rejection of that order was pay-back for Perez deliberately crashing in the final minutes of qualifying in Monaco last May, which brought out the red flag. ruining the Dutchman's final flyer but also Sainz's efforts.

Whether Perez's crash was intentional or not, we'll never know. But Sainz, supported by many of his colleagues, said that the time had come for drivers causing yellow or red flags in qualifying to be sanctioned, perhaps by losing their fastest lap in the session.

"I think what Carlos said, I think it should be red flags or yellow flags, for effectively impeding a driver from completing their lap," Brown commented, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"They do that in other forms of motorsports, the penalties, you just lose your fastest lap from that session, and all the drivers tend to do one lap runs so that would penalise the driver if it was intentional or unintentional. Because you've messed up someone else's laps.

“I think that's an easy solution, it can be implemented right away. You cause a driver to have to back out, you lose your lap, you get to go again and maybe you won't have a chance.

"Maybe you will or you have to use another set of tyres. I think that's the easiest way to solve it."

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was on the same page as his McLaren counterpart.

"I agree with Zak also that this is a good idea," said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

"I think it exists in Formula E, if I'm not mistaken, that your quickest lap is deleted. So that's something that we can implement."

But Aston Martin F1 boss suggests that a driver's responsibility can't always be judged in a clear)cut manner.

"I do not have a black and white opinion on this," he said.

"I think we need to really look case-by-case, going to sporting advisory and maybe have a look at the last 10 years where we had situations, because it's quite quick to pre-condemn someone, when it was not good.

"I think it would be easy to say yeah, it has to be like that, but I think it will be a tough call to do it."

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