McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that the FIA should review how it hands outs penalties in Formula 1. This comes following Lando Norris’s stop-and-go penalty at the Qatar Grand Prix, which could result in future “consequences”.
Norris has started from third place and was going for the lead at the start for the race. As the race progressed, yellow flags were shown at the end of the start-finish straight due to debris. The Briton did not lift in the yellow flag zone and was handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty by the stewards.
He served the penalty two laps after the third and last safety car restart and tumbled down the order. In the end, Norris recovered to P10 and put in the fastest lap for McLaren. Teammate Oscar Piastri ended up on the podium and received a warming for a move during the installation laps prior to the race.
On Monday after the race, the FIA explained their decision on this matter: “A double yellow flag infringement is considered a serious compromise of safety, which is why such offences carry such a severe penalty.
McLaren accepts Norris did not slow down but believes penalty was too extreme
For Andrea Stella, the decision stays too extreme, despite agreeing that Norris did not slow down for the yellow flags. In fact, McLaren did provide the telemetry to the stewards. Data gathered by Pit Debrief showed that Norris was the only driver to not lift in the yellow flag zone.
“I’m here acknowledging that, checking the data, Lando did not slow down,” Stella told Sky F1. “But 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 competition of the going racing in Formula 1. It’s an important business.
“There’s a huge commitment from every team, a huge commitment from all the parties, and we need to make sure that the business is run in a way that some fundamental element of proportion and specificity is guaranteed when a penalty is applied. Otherwise, the consequences may go out of control.
“To me, it looks like somewhere there must be a book with a lot of dust on the cover that was kind of taken out [and someone said]: ‘Let me see what it says. I apply this.’”
Review into how penalties are handed out rather than review into Norris penalty
Stella added that the FIA should review how future penalties are being applied instead of requesting a review into Norris’s penalty.
“We expect that this case of applying such a severe penalty will be reviewed by the FIA, and there is certainly, in our opinion, material for improvement once the FIA has taken this opportunity to open a review of their operations and application of the penalty,” he explained.
“As for the rest, we don’t want to comment. We trust the FIA in terms of their decisions, in terms of when you put somebody in a certain role — that’s the job of the FIA.
”For us, we have expressed that we expect this to be the case to be reviewed but we don’t want to enter with any comment about changes of racing director. We don’t have the elements to judge, so we just trust the institution that is there to do this kind of job.”
Mercedes call for consistency after Hamilton drive-through penalty
Next to McLaren, its rivals Mercedes also questioned the handling of the penalty application in Sunday’s race. Team boss Toto Wolff believes that the penalties were “brutal” and could cost the championship. He calls for consistency after Lewis Hamilton’s drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
“The penalties were brutal, particularly to McLaren – and it can cost the championship,” Wolff told Sky F1 after the race in Qatar.
“I don’t know what the infringement was, but the most important thing is that there’s consistency. If the race director comes in and he has a hard stance, that’s OK as long as everybody knows that it’s a hard stance, and you have to comply with it.”
McLaren had a chance to win the constructors championship in Qatar but lost out on valuable points following Norris’s penalty and not enough pace on Sunday.
The fight for the championship will go to Abu Dhabi, where the season finale will take place. Ferrari is 21 points behind McLaren, while Red Bull is out of championship contention.
