Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Both of Trident’s Formula 2 drivers have been given five-place grid penalties for the Jeddah sprint race due to their tyres not being returned to parc ferme after qualifying.
The series’ technical delegate Florian Bartsch wrote a report revealing “during the parc ferme of the qualifying session it was found that Team Trident had not brought their used tyres of both cars into the parc ferme as required but had been working on the tyres”.
That was a breach of F2’s sporting regulations as the tyres drivers finish a session on are supposed to immediately be put under parc ferme conditions, and means Clement Novalak and Roman Stanek will start Saturday’s sprint race from 16th and 21st respectively, having been 11th and 16th fastest in qualifying.
Also attracting the attention of the stewards during the first day of track action was PHM Racing by Charouz driver Brad Benavides, who was reprimanded for impeding Campos Racing’s Kush Maini at Turn 24 during free practice, and ART Grand Prix was fined €500 after “the external battery fell off the side pod of Car 6 [Victor Martins] at Turn 10 when the car was driving from the F2 Paddock to the Pit Lane prior to” practice.
There were several changes to the Jeddah circuit for this weekend based on feedback from drivers over the previous two visits to the semi-permanent venue, including the moving of barriers and the reprofiling of Turn 22, and there will be another change from qualifying to the races as the bollards beyond the kerbs at turns four and eight will be removed.
They had been installed to deter drivers from going over the kerbs and exceeding track limits, but are beliefed to have posed a potential safety risk due to the fact that they can become on-track debris once struck by a car.