Albon questions FIA’s lack of consistency in key incidents

Speaking to GPblog during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend, the Williams Racing driver aired his frustration over the calls and judgments being made by the stewards.

Albon, who echoed the sentiments of Oscar Piastri after the McLaren driver expressed his frustration about the ruling of his opening-lap incident at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, also referenced multiple moments from the Nevada race, citing how similar incidents were treated in different ways by the stewards.

He began: “I'll give you an example: Liam [Lawson] hit Oscar [Piastri], locked up, and was very lucky to be wheel-to-wheel, so there was no damage to either car."

“But Oscar took a hit. Gabriel [Bortoleto] had a similar crash, equally out of control like Lawson, but because of the circumstances, Liam was quite lucky that there weren't cars already in the middle of the corner, so he only made contact with Oscar,” Albon continued.

The former Red Bull Racing driver also referenced his incident with Lewis Hamilton, where he received a penalty despite the Scuderia Ferrari driver not suffering any visible damage.

“I don't understand where the rules apply and what gets you a penalty or not. Because there's a tolerance for lap one. How big is this tolerance? Well, clearly it's quite big, as long as you don't have a huge crash," he concluded.

Like Piastri, who stressed the need for such inconsistencies to be addressed during the drivers’ meeting, Albon also hopes to gain clarity on the rulings.

“It will be talked about for sure. I'm complaining because I was the one who got the penalty in Vegas, but I think it's positive that we're having discussions about it,” he added.

The Thai driver also shared his thoughts on possible solutions to mitigate recurring issues. Albon, however, acknowledged the difficulty of having strict rulings on such situations.

He concluded: “I said it in our last meeting, but to me it's almost impossible to have such strict rulings on each thing, if the car's here, the turning point of a corner, what dictates a corner, track usage, squeezing a driver off the track or not, or what's entitled to your space and what's not."

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