Honda Racing Team Principal Alessandro Mariani has criticised the placement of tyre stacks on the exit of some corners at the Losail International Circuit, after one cost Norbert Michelisz a chance at pole in qualifying.
Tyre stacks have been placed on the outside of a number of corners at the Qatari circuit in order to dissuade drivers from running wide at the modern facility.
Michelisz had made it through to Q3 and was the second driver to take part in the one-shot-showdown session, when he made a mistake and clipped one of the tyre stacks.
JAS Motorsport Team Principal Mariani was heavily critical of the placement of the stacks, which had earlier in the weekend been cited as a positive addition, including from José María López.
“I thought Norbi could have been on the front row, but he made a mistake and damaged the car against the tyres,” said Mariani. “I’m not happy about the placement of the tyre stacks at this circuit especially at that corner, because if you have a car that isn’t handling well, you run wide at 200kph and you have a needless accident.
“It’s something that needs to be addressed for next year because there has to be a safer way of keeping drivers within the track limits.”
Mariani was also disappointed by qualifying, as Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro could only manage sixth and seventh respectively.
“The target was to get two cars into Q3 and we didn’t achieve this; it was very close though with Rob only missing out by four hundredths of a second and Tiago by very little more.”
Having been faster than eventual pole-sitter Mehdi Bennani at the time, Michelisz potentially missed out on pole, although the Hungarian later admitted that he didn’t think being fastest would have been possible.
“I don’t think pole position was possible today, but certainly I was aiming for the top three and I’m sure I could have come very close to doing that,” said the Hungarian.
“On my Q3 lap I just pushed too hard into Turn 4 and hit the tyre stack next to the corner. This damaged the car and I went off, which also meant we couldn’t do MAC3.
“Thankfully there are still some hours until the races later on and I’m sure the team will be able to fix the damage.”