02/12/2024
NEWS STORY
Lando Norris takes the blame for yellow flag violation that cost him a precious podium.
Running behind race leader Max Verstappen, Norris failed to slow for double waved yellow flags in the chaos that ensured after Alex Albon shed a mirror which fell from his car and lay on the main straight.
According to the stewards Norris did not make any reduction in speed in the yellow sector though the double waved yellow flags and yellow lights were clearly visible to him.
As a result he was given a 10 second stop and go penalty - which dropped him to last - and 3 penalty points, bringing his total to 3 for the 12 month period.
As if the penalty wasn't bad enough, adding insult to the McLaren driver's injury was the fact that it came some time after the incident, indeed after the Safety Car had been deployed as a result of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton picking up punctures from the errant mirror, and as a result, with the field now bunched up, after serving the penalty the Briton rejoined the race in last position.
"Disappointed, of course," said Norris at race end. "I let the team down, the team gave me a great car today. Easily the quickest out there and I f***** it up.
"I don't know what I did wrong," he admitted. "I'm not an idiot, if there's a yellow flag I know I need to slow down. That's rule number one, don't go past people. For some reason, I didn't do that today, because I've not seen it or I've missed it or something. I have to take it on the chin.
"If they think I've done something wrong, I must have done something wrong," he added. "I can only apologise for the rest of the year to the team."
Asked if he felt the penalty was justified, he said: "If I did what they said I did wrong, then good on them for giving me the quick penalty."
However, though admitting that the penalty was "deserved", team boss Andrea Stella took issue with its severity.
"I think the penalty was deserved," said the Italian. "Which leads us then to two important requirements. One is proportion and the second one is specificity. I think the application of the penalty lacks both requirements.
"Is there an immediate danger for somebody, is there a crash scene? Like the specificity of the incident in which the infringement was committed. The specificity leads into the proportion. The penalty needs to be commensurate, it needs to be proportioned to the severity of the infringement.
"It's interesting that the FIA themselves were going on and off with the yellow flag and at some stage the yellow flag was even removed," he added. "The lack of any specificity and proportion is very concerning and is also a factor that could have a decisive impact on the championship quest.
"It's definitely material that the FIA should consider very seriously if we want fairness to be part of the going racing in F1."
Indeed, at a time the sport's governing body is under fire and going through internal turmoil, it hardly covered itself in glory... far from it.
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