Lando Norris felt that the United States Grand Prix stewards were “rushing” to make a decision on his off-track pass on Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen, stating that the outcome was “guessing” without driver input.
Norris was handed a five-second penalty for his pass on Max Verstappen at Turn 12, which was conducted while both drivers were off the road, and could not build up enough of an advantage to nullify the effect of the time deduction – which was given only on the final lap.
This ensured Verstappen took third in the final race results, which extended his points lead to Norris to 57 points with five rounds left.
Speaking about the process the stewards went through to reach a conclusion, Norris reckoned that the decision showed “inconsistency” with others and that the situation needed the drivers’ input to fully compute.
“I think there’s again inconsistency, but it’s tough. For me, it’s just a rushed decision and they don’t hear or understand our points, which they should do after the race,” Norris explained.
“They just want to make a decision at the time so you don’t alter points, but therefore it’s a rushed decision and they don’t hear my point of discussion or my team’s point or Max’s point.
“I don’t think it’s maybe the most correct thing, but today it was a penalty and there’s not a lot I can do apart from just accept that. I tried, we both tried, it was a great battle.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38 battles with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“I really enjoyed it. It was tough. Max drove very well and defended very well. He ended up on top, so congrats to him.
“I don’t think you can appeal this kind of penalty, which is again a silly thing because they’re just guessing and I don’t think that’s how stewarding should be done. But it’s a difficult job for them to do, so I’m not complaining against them.
“I think it’s just more the fact they don’t see everything, understand everything as well as we do when we’re inside the car. That’s it.”
Asked if Verstappen had been ‘over the top’ in his defending, Norris said that his title rival was committing to corners with a lot of speed – and this something he was attempting to match.
He related his own pass to that of Verstappen into Turn 1, where he appeared to put Norris off the road and kept position without further ramifications, and questioned why incidents into the first corner were treated differently.
“I think both times Max went off the track. He had a lot of commitment to keep me behind.
“The thing is with Max, you’ve got to commit – people don’t understand that kind of thing. With Max, you can’t just go half-hearted.
“Turn 1 is a bit harder to say whether it was because I didn’t commit enough, but the fact [is] that he committed so much speed in that he again went off the track.
“I can’t just dive up the inside of someone, run off and then keep the position in normal running, but for some reason it’s completely OK on Turn 1 of lap one. It’s a tough one. I don’t know. It hurts today.”
