Lando Norris acknowledged that he should have been penalized for not slowing down when he saw yellow flags during the Qatar Grand Prix, but McLaren manager Andrea Stella believes the punishment was excessively severe.
The stewards of the Qatar Grand Prix “lost all sense of proportion and specificity” when they gave Lando Norris a huge penalty, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
When he was accused of not slowing down for yellow flags while pursuing Max Verstappen, Norris was in second place in the race. During the impacted portion of the track, the Dutchman saw the McLaren approach the rear of his Red Bull and reported it on the radio.
After investigating, the stewards discovered that Norris had failed to slow down when the yellow flag was raised. They gave the Brit a 10-second stop-and-go penalty because they saw his failure to lift off as a possible safety hazard.
Norris lost so much time that he ended up at the very back of the pack because he had to go to the pit lane, stop to serve the penalty, and then start over. He was only able to move up to 10th place by the end of the race.
With his hands raised, Norris acknowledged that he was deserving of punishment. “I’m not a fool,” he said, adding, “I would have slowed down if I had known there was a yellow. I’m not sure if I’ve missed it or have simply been stupid, but the rule is that you get a fair penalty if you don’t slow down when the light turns yellow.
“I had clean air at the end, but obviously, that was a lost chance. I’m grateful to the team because they gave me a fantastic car today. I regret not giving them the credit they merit and making the team’s task far more difficult than it has to be. I feel as though I have failed them.
Stella, his team principal, also acknowledged that his driver was to blame. The Italian, however, was horrified to see such a heavy penalty being administered and asked why the stewards felt the need to administer such a severe punishment when there was never any actual danger.
“We looked at the data, and Lando basically stays flat out,” he stated. It is the driver’s responsibility to recognize that you are in a yellow sector and to back off, and the requirement is very clear: you must lift.
However, I find it odd that the yellow flag was raised and then taken down when, in reality, the situation in that sector was the same—debris was on the way. It deserved a yellow flag at one point, but then it didn’t a few seconds later. I would say that was unfortunate.
“I believe that we have lost all sense of proportion and specificity in the way the penalty has been applied. Instead of looking at some form of rule book with dust on top of it and applying it without any critical thinking, can we look at the infringement specifically at the level of danger associated with the situation and the fact that the yellow flag was removed and then judge using these elements, proportion and specificity? From this vantage point, I believe the FIA has a chance to improve.”
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