Why Albon's track-limits strike in F1 Miami GP sprint qualifying came too late

As the clock ticked down during the second phase of qualifying for the Miami GP sprint race, Formula 1's world TV feed briefly cut to the incongruous spectacle of Liam Lawson sitting in his car in the Racing Bulls garage.

Lawson had been eliminated in the first phase of sprint qualifying but his team was hoping he would be allowed to return to the track. The belief was that Alex Albon's Williams would be penalised for exceeding track limits on the lap that put him 16th in SQ1, leaving Lawson 17th and therefore knocked out.

Albon had indeed gone beyond track limits at Turn 6 in setting the 1m30.216s lap, but this was not picked up at the time. An FIA spokesperson explained that tyre marks left on the asphalt by the other championships racing this weekend – including the domestic McLaren Trophy America and Porsche Carrera Cup as well as Formula 2 – meant its systems didn't register the infringement immediately, as they normally would.

Race director Rui Marques reported this to the stewards but SQ2 had already begun. Accordingly, all the times set by Albon in that session were also struck off once the stewards had reviewed the infringement, leaving just his initial SQ1 lap of 1m31.322s, putting him 19th on the grid.

"The stewards heard from the team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, and video evidence," said the stewards in their rationale for the decision.

"During SQ1, Car 23 [Albon] clearly exceeded track limits in turn 6. However this was not reported to the stewards until SQ2 had commenced.

"Car 23's time recorded on the lap that track limits were exceeded was sufficient to place it in SQ2. Hence at the time the Stewards were informed that Car 23 had left the track and that its lap should have been potentially deleted, it was already on track in SQ2.

"As this was an unusual situation, the stewards have decided to settle the matter by exercising their authority under Article 11.7.1.a of the International Sporting Code by deleting the lap time of the lap in question in SQ1. As Car 23 should not have proceeded into SQ2, all lap times from SQ2 will consequently be deleted."

Alexander Albon, Williams

Photo by: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images

This follows a precedent set in Austria in 2022, when Sergio Perez made it through to SQ3 and qualified fourth for the sprint race, but it was later discovered that he had breached track limits on the lap that elevated him to SQ3. The stewards then deleted not only the SQ2 lap, but also the SQ3 laps – much to the chagrin of Perez's Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, who felt the issue "should have been dealt with before SQ3".

"The team made the point that they took both risk and expended resources to compete in SQ3," said the stewards' verdict at the time. 

"The stewards accept this point. However, in assessing a penalty after a session, this is no different than any other situation.

"The usual penalty is deleting the lap time concerned, and the stewards order the same penalty here.

"However, as a consequence, the driver would not have proceeded into SQ3 and therefore, in fairness to all the other competitors, the stewards order that all the lap times for SQ3 for the driver also are deleted."