I posted this in another thread, but I think the Austin race was a perfect microcosm of the strange and disproportionate penalties we see all the time in F1, and a perfect illustration of that .
As is evidenced by this thread, I've been railing on for years that F1 needs a coherent, sensical, proportionate slate of penalties, and a well-trained, well-compensated, well-evaluated core group of traveling Stewards to bring continuity to rule enforcement. They could still have a local steward or two at every race. They just wouldn't have to rely solely on them. The penalties as they are now are simply nonsensical, and the penalties in this race illustrated that point very clearly.
- Russell causes a collision, taking out the polesitter on L1T1 ... 5 seconds
- Gasly dawdles a little behind the SC for a few seconds ... 5 seconds
- Perez and Russell drive with broken wings for most of the race ... no penalty
- Albon holds position after overtaking off the track ... 5 seconds + 1 point on SL (worse penalty than Russell's)
- Stroll causes a very dangerous collision, taking out Alonso ... 3 grid positions in Mexico + 2 SL points
- Latifi causes a collision ... 5 grid positions in Mexico + 2 SL points (worse penalty than Russel's or Stroll's)
- Alonso loses the mirror damaged by Stroll's late move ... 30 seconds and loss of all points for the race, when the protest was filed late, when there was no warning or black & orange flag given, and when Bauer had said post-race that the car was legal. (worse penalty than Russel's or any of the others)
It's just bizarre.