Lando Norris delivers scathing criticism of F1 penalty points system

Norris, McLaren, Austria — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

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Norris delivers scathing criticism of F1 penalty points system

Norris has inched to within two points of a ban

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Monday 5 July 2021 10:29

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Lando Norris has labelled F1's penalty points system as "stupid" and "not what F1 should be" after being punished for forcing Sergio Perez off track during the Austrian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver finished third but could have claimed the runner-up spot had he not been given a five-second time penalty for the incident with Perez, who was pushed into the gravel at turn four when attempting to overtake Norris around the outside.

Norris was also given two penalty points on his licence, taking his tally to 10 for a 12-month period. Although he is effectively two away from a race ban, two points will be wiped from his record before the British Grand Prix.

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The incidents for which Norris has collected points include overtaking under yellow flags in a practice session last year and not slowing sufficiently for yellow flags in a qualifying session.

In the recent Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Norris was also punished for not pitting under a red flag, believing he took the safer option by not doing so at the time.

Reflecting on such a list, Norris said: "In my opinion, they should be decisions about when someone’s done something dangerous, put someone in harm’s way and done something they shouldn’t have done. Then you have racing and when people have to use common sense."

Referencing what unfolded in Baku, in particular, Norris added: "Like my approach of the incident in Baku with the red flag and not boxing when I should have done, I didn’t put anyone in harm’s way.

"In fact, it was the opposite and I did everything safely. Why should I deserve penalty points for that?

"Why should I deserve penalty points for someone going into the gravel? Nothing I’ve done is dangerous.

"Maybe in some cases you deserve an on-track penalty because you’ve done something bad in terms of racing and you just made a mistake but then you have things that people do every now and then which are purely dangerous.

"If you do genuinely overtake in a yellow flag and do something that will put people in danger then I understand penalty points for a driver, and if that adds up you get a race ban.

"But for little things like this, it’s stupid in my opinion. It’s not what Formula 1 should be. I would expect and hope other people would back me up on this kind of opinion."

Norris calls for chance to debate incidents

Norris continued to question the consistency of the way rules are applied, citing Max Verstappen running wide at turn one of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix when driving around the outside of Lewis Hamilton.

With such complexity in such racing situations, Norris called for stewards to provide drivers with the opportunity to discuss incidents before penalties are applied.

"I don’t want to complain because the headline of this is probably going to be Lando said something about the stewards or whatever," added Norris.

"[But] there are enough cases of when people have done things like what happened [in the race] and got away with it.

"I don’t think everything they do is wrong. There are a lot of good rules in place and a lot of things they should keep.

"But just using some common sense every now and then and reviewing those incidents from the past and maybe not giving it [a penalty] to us straight away in the race, like at least having a chance to speak to me as a driver or Sergio as a driver.

"I’m sure Sergio would say I pushed him off but instead of just giving a penalty in a race and then not being able to do anything about it, because I had to serve it within the pit stop and I lost out on P2 because of that.

"At least give us a chance to debate it, put our word in, argue it and state our point and then maybe get a penalty but not ruin someone’s race while they’re racing because of something that wasn’t their fault."