The next time you park your car just short of perfect and your partner makes fun of you, tell them that even Fernando Alonso has trouble parking. He parked his F1 car just outside the box before the start of the Saudi Arabian GP and was penalized for doing so. To prevent this from happening in the future, the FIA is helping F1 drivers with parking.
RacingNews365 spoke to an FIA spokesperson. He says the starting spots will be 20 centimeters wider. In addition, a horizontal line will be placed in the middle of each box. This line should ensure that the drivers can put their cars straight in the box.
Why do F1 drivers have trouble parking?
Since the big rule change of 2022, the F1 cars run with bigger wheels. The rims grew from 13-inch to 18-inch. This makes the already low visibility even smaller. Several drivers have already commented on this, including Max Verstappen: “The view from the cockpit is just really bad, that’s the main problem that sometimes means you’re not completely correct on the grid position.”
A week before Alonso’s incident, things also went wrong with his ex-teammate, Esteban Ocon. Before the start of the Bahrain GP he was too far to the inside and Ocon also received a five-second penalty. With these adjustments, the FIA hopes to prevent a repeat of the clumsy parking.
