How F1 drivers are being 'screwed' by their teams

Twice in two Formula 1 race weekends drivers have referred to being "screwed" by one another at the start of the 2019 season. Both occasions, coincidentally or not, involved four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. One incident cost four drivers the chance of setting a final lap in qualifying in China. Some drivers claimed it breached an unwritten code of conduct between each other, some were on the fence - and others, including Lewis Hamilton, said it did not exist at all.

Could this be the emergence of an unexpectedly divisive and controversial grand prix weekend phenomenon? That might be a stretch, but it is looking like the beginning of an unorthodox and troubling trend. Furthermore, it is one that could be completely avoided by the people causing the problems - and that is the teams, not the drivers.

In Bahrain, Lando Norris said Vettel stitched up Romain Grosjean by overtaking the Haas driver right at the end of one another's preparation laps in Q1. That in turn meant Grosjean backed off so much he impeded Norris, who was on a flying lap.

"Vettel screwed him over, which is not a very nice thing to do in terms of us being racers, we try to respect each other," said Norris. "If you've got a car ahead you don't just overtake them into the final corner like [Kevin] Magnussen and Fernando [Alonso] last year in Monza because you kind of screw both your qualifying laps."

The verbal bust-up between Alonso and Magnussen after they raced each into the first chicane and ruined each other's laps at Monza last year seemed an outlier at the time, but the very issue they fought over has been more common than not this year. Admittedly over a very small sample set of data, but we had deja vu in China - with Vettel involved again.

Max Verstappen accused his rivals of behaving like "wankers" after failing to start a final flying lap before the end of the final part of qualifying. Verstappen was in a queue of drivers preparing for a run in the dying moments of the session, but missed out on crossing the line in time by less than two seconds when several drivers - led by Vettel - overtook him before the final corner and backed him up.

Can it really, truly, honestly be worth the risk of being caught behind someone and not making it to the line before the chequered flag?

"They are such wankers, honestly," Verstappen raged over the radio. "Everybody just lining up and they are just fucking it up. You're just trying to be nice but everybody's just fucking it up."

Then, later, speaking to Dutch television channel Ziggo Sport, he said: "They fucked up my entire build up, while there is an unwritten rule that you just follow each other. But whatever. From now on in qualifying I'm going to fuck them up as well."

Phew. These young drivers have terrible mouths on them. But there is a significant issue here. Forget the argument over the gentleman's agreement for a moment, because the drivers are not screwing one another. The teams are screwing their drivers.

Each of the three segments of qualifying often boil down to a final-lap shootout, but for some reason it's been more common this year for teams to either misjudge the times or not give their drivers information accurately or quickly enough.

Those with the data know the value of track evolution for a lap started at one time, and a lap that starts 20 seconds later. We are unlikely to ever see this. But can it really, truly, honestly be worth the risk of being caught behind someone else and not making it to the line before the chequered flag falls? Or the risk of being at the back of the queue and catching a yellow flag that rivals ahead have missed?

Assuming teams are determined to fight for every thousandth of track evolution, or seek to get everything from every run earlier in qualifying, the teams could still be doing more. The communication has got to be better. Verstappen said he did not get a call to hurry up until after he had been passed by his rivals. In Bahrain, Grosjean said he was not told Norris was so close to him. In China, where he was one of the four not to get a final Q3 lap in, he said the countdown he got from his Haas team was inaccurate.

These are basic errors that have big consequences. If teams are going to insist on playing with small margins they have got to stop shooting themselves in the foot.

Verstappen's immediate reaction was undeniably angry, but he calmed down afterwards. Instead of escalating, the whole issue seemed to reduce from boiling point to a low simmer surprisingly quickly. Even though the consequences were arguably bigger than in Italy last year, when Alonso and Magnussen got knocked out of Q2, it seems the situation was swiftly swept under the rug.

But further flashpoints will almost certainly occur, and that could nudge the drivers towards a needless civil war of sorts, because there are clear disagreements between them over what is allowed and what isn't.

This is especially likely if teams insist on continuing with risky strategies, like we saw in China. But if the communication remains sub-standard then it is not a threat that exists exclusively in these scenarios, as Bahrain proved.

"People got screwed because we left it tight. Normally there is some etiquette, but that went out the window because of how tight it was" Daniel Ricciardo

That means the drivers will need to learn to deal with such run-ins with each other, and work out what the code of conduct should be, or if indeed there should be one. While the likes of Verstappen, Norris and Grosjean preach about an unwritten gentleman's agreement between the drivers not to overtake one another at the end of the lap when preparing for a flier in qualifying, others - like five-time world champion Hamilton and Charles Leclerc - don't believe that's the case.

"You cannot have an agreement about not overtaking in the outlap because different teams have different strategy with the tyres, and we need to follow what we are told," said Ferrari driver Leclerc. "It's not possible unfortunately."

But it is. The rule just does not need to be black-and-white. It's perfectly valid for an unofficial code of conduct to be: 'If we're in the final sector, we hold our positions - unless someone is going too slowly, and there's a risk I will miss my lap'.

Renault's Daniel Ricciardo offers a sensible take. "A lot of the time there's a bit of a gentleman's agreement, [that before the] last corner, everyone prepares their lap and you kind of hold your position," he said.

"You try not to screw anyone intentionally. It [passing other cars in China] wasn't to screw them it was to make sure we got a lap. The only time I'd set in Q3 was on a used set of tyres. I had to go.

"People got screwed because we left it tight. So, you had to do what you had to do. Normally there is some etiquette, but that went out the window because of how tight it was."

Therefore, what Vettel did in Bahrain - stitching up a slower team in Q1 - is worse than the Ferrari man and the Renault drivers saving their skin in China. F1 is high-stakes, and a driver should not sacrifice his own competitive interests because another driver or team is doing something poorly.

As Ricciardo put it, what screwed drivers in China was the teams leaving it too tight. In Bahrain, Grosjean said it was clear Haas got it wrong. So, regardless of the 'gentleman's agreement' debate, it seems the flashpoints so far would have been avoided if teams stopped trying to occupy the same piece of track as the clock ticks down into the final seconds, or gave their drivers better information.

These seem like very simple solutions to a wholly unnecessary problem. But perhaps the teams know best.