F1 rookie handed out bizarre penalty after incident in Mexico

Stake newcomer Robert Shwartzman has been handed a five-place grid penalty by the Mexican Grand Prix race stewards – despite not being a full-time F1 driver.

Shwartzman was in action for Zhou Guanyu at Sauber in the mandatory FP1 session and breached the yellow flags put in place for the incident between Ollie Bearman and Alex Albon, which ultimately triggered a red flag.

Shwartzman was found to have overtaken Yuki Tsunoda under a double-waved yellow flag as he drove past the scene of the accident – when drivers should slow down and be ready to stop.

The usual penalty for this is a drop of five places on the grid, which the stewards imposed even though Shwartzman had never made his Grand Prix debut – although he could be called upon if Zhou and Valtteri Bottas race later in the season would have to miss.

Given the unusual nature of the situation, the stewards admitted this, but in order to “remain consistent,” Shwartzman dropped five places.

Elsewhere, stewards decided not to take any further action against Bearman or Albon over their incident.

It turned out that Bearman was in a cooling-off period, had been informed of Albon's arrival and had passed the racing line well.

When Albon took off in the presence of Bearman, the load the car was under oversteered and threw Albon into Bearman.

Both drivers agreed that Bearman's positioning was not “unreasonable”, but it was simply “unfortunate” and if Bearman had been further down the track the incident would not have happened.

All parties agreed that this was a racing incident.