Christian Horner doubts that Lando Norris would have made it through Turn 4 without going off track in his battle with Max Verstappen in the first of two Mexican Grand Prix incidents that awarded the Dutchman a 10-second penalty.
Norris made a move on the outside of Verstappen at Turn 4 of lap 10 after closing in with DRS, and the two were side-by-side in the apex. Verstappen was then adjudged to have guided Norris wide into the run-off and onto the grass.
This preceded the second incident that lap, where Norris – who was now ahead at this juncture – was pushed off the road by Verstappen at Turn 7 as the Red Bull driver came into the corner hot.
Horner, using print-outs of GPS traces in a session with the media to illustrate his point, believes that Norris braked much later for the corner versus that of his fastest lap later on in the race.
“First of all, I think it was very harsh to give two 10-second penalties,” Horner said. “I think there’s something more fundamental; I mean, obviously there’s been a reaction to last weekend.
“I think it’s very important for the drivers’ stewards and the drivers to sit down. Because [looking at] the GPS, this is on the run down to Turn 4.
“This is actually Lando versus Lando. In Lando’s fastest lap of the Grand Prix, the point that he’s braking for Turn 4 and then obviously executing the corner.
“On the lap that he has the incident with Max — he is 15 kilometres an hour faster and later on the brakes than his fastest lap of the grand prix.
“He wouldn’t have made the corner, he would have run off track. You can see from his onboard steering. Of course, at this point in the race, he’s got probably 80kg more fuel than at the point that he’s done his fastest lap.
Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Erwin Jaeggi
“It used to be a reward of the bravest to go around the outside. I think we’re in danger of flipping the overtaking laws upside down, where drivers will just try to get their nose ahead at the at the apex, and then claim that they have to be given room on the exit.
“You can see quite clearly, he’s effectively come off the brakes, gone in super late to try and win that argument, as far as the way these regulations are written, and then at that point, you’re penalised.”
Horner says the follow-up incident was a more understandable penalty, suggesting that Verstappen was expecting Norris to give up the place and ultimately became frustrated that his championship rival hadn’t done so.
He added that it was important that F1’s rulemakers reiterated the importance of having the inside line, and called upon them to avoid “over-complicating” the racing guidelines.
“I think the Turn 7 incident is different. I think Max was expecting Lando to give up the pace, he’s obviously gone up the inside there, and they’ve both run wide.
“I can understand effectively forcing the car wide there why there would be a penalty applicable to that.
“But I think that was the frustration of potentially Lando not giving back the place from this incident here. So these things, you know, they only escalate.
“I just think maybe we’re over-complicating things. And when you have to revert to an instruction manual of an overtake…
“I mean, the racing principles for years have been, if you have the inside line, you dictate the corner.
“And I think the way the regulations or the guidelines have evolved is encouraging a driver to have his nose ahead at the apex, irrelevant of whether you’re going to make the corner.”
