Lando Norris’ F1 Brazil GP weekend took a turn for the worse after he and his McLaren team led by Andrea Stella were penalised for a starting procedure breach that has sparked debate over the clarity of F1’s aborted-start regulations.
McLaren believes that the current rules are murky, following the sequence of events that played out at Interlagos.
After Lance Stroll stranded himself in the gravel at turn 4 during the formation lap, the race director decided to abort the start after the grid had already formed.
Following the rules, this should have meant that the drivers were to remain stationary on the grid until an official restart was announced. However, confusion surrounding the rules saw Norris, alongside George Russell, initiate an additional formation lap.
A domino effect then occurred, and several cars followed suit, leaving both the paddock, and the stewards, questioning the clarity of the rules around aborted starts.
Following the race, Norris and Russell were given reprimands and a €5,000 fine each for failing to comply with the expected start procedure.
Despite this, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes the situation only arose due to the ambiguity of the regulations. He pointed out that the timing of the aborted start signal added to the confusion, noting:
“When you look at the letter of the regulations, it’s a little tricky, because in the extra formation lap, there is talk about delayed [starts], then there is the aborted [start] and it talks about returning to the grid.”
According to Stella, there are two types of start interruptions defined in the sporting regulations: a ‘delayed start’, which applies when the formation lap hasn’t yet begun and the cars remain on the grid, and an ‘aborted start’, which happens once the formation lap has started.
However, the Brazilian GP’s scenario fell into a grey area, with the aborted start signalled only after most cars, including Norris, had lined up on the grid.
McLaren believes that tightening up these rules would reduce driver confusion and help teams better prepare for any similar situations in the future after Norris’ F1 Brazil GP problems.
Stella explained, “So there are some technicalities that may have made the situation a little confusing for Lando. I guess he just reacted to the lights at the time.
“Overall, we think this is a very benign situation.
“If anything, it should give the opportunity to clarify a little bit what to do in these cases because the call came very late when Lando had been sitting on pole position for a long time.
“If there was an aborted start, I think the conditions were present for a long time to give it. So this confused the driver a bit.”
With the stakes high in a relatively close drivers’ championship, teams rely on the transparency of race procedures and are willing the FIA to do better.
