Lando Norris is worried about a lack of overtaking under current F1 rules (Image: Getty Images)
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris will face off again at the British Grand Prix, a week after the collision while fighting hard for the lead in Austria which caused both to miss out on victory
Lando Norris told the FIA it needs to change rules around overtaking – or risk Formula 1 races becoming “boring” processions.
He raised the point while referring back to his battle with Max Verstappen in Austria. They were fighting for the lead but neither of them won in the end after they suffered punctures due to contact between the two cars. Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty for causing that collision while Norris also had five second added to his time for exceeding track limits on too many occasions.
The incident that triggered the penalty came when he attempted an overtake on his rival. The McLaren lunged up the inside at turn three but one of his wheels locked up and he ended up going off track and not completing the overtake. And Norris made it clear what he thinks of that decision.
He told reporters, including Mirror Sport, at Silverstone: “I got the five-second for trying to overtake and it not going correctly… That’s pretty silly, to be honest. I’ve tried to do an overtake, I’ve locked up, I’ve gone off the track, just, I’ve had to then avoid the sausage kerb.
“But immediately I gave the position back to Max, so I’ve probably lost a second and a half in doing that. That’s a clear enough penalty. I’ve lost out in doing such a thing. Yeah, that’s just, it’s just silly, you know, and those types of things will avoid people racing.
“Like, if you don’t want us to race and don’t want me to try ever overtake and you want a boring race, then you can have these rules. But yeah, I’m sure it’s something that’s already been brought up because it’s just… There’s a difference between going off track and racing. gaining an advantage, and it’s the gaining advantage bit which is the most important.
“And then there’s the going off because you’ve made a silly mistake. You’ve not judged something perfectly, but the fact I get punished for that, especially in a racing situation, especially when I’ve given up even more time, it just doesn’t make sense. So something I hope they fix quickly, because I think it’s pretty stupid.”
He also said Verstappen should have been penalised for another move the lap before their collision, which saw the Red Bull go off track but stay ahead of Norris. The Briton added: “I think Max could have made the corner, honestly. He didn’t try, which is probably the main fact of it.
“In this part of it, I didn’t squeeze him. It wasn’t like I was side by side and almost pushing him off, that kind of thing. He took a very easy route out of it… And the gap he had out of the corner was bigger than what we had going in. So in the sense of him going off track and gaining advantage, he was actually the one that did it in that case, especially with the fact that I didn’t even push him off.
“Yeah, I think there just needs to be some clarification on things, and I think there needs to be consistency from this point onwards, because if that’s clear what we can do, then I think everyone’s happy, but it just can’t keep changing from one weekend to another.”
