Norris/McLaren dispute penalty - but there was logic to it - The Race
the-race.com
Lando Norris and McLaren were caught out by his "unsportsmanlike behaviour" penalty in the Canadian Grand Prix

Article from the-race.com on the penalty Norris received for backing up the pack to create space for a double-stack. The article starts:

Lando Norris and his McLaren Formula 1 team were surprised by his penalty for “unsportsmanlike” conduct in the Canadian Grand Prix and felt it was a departure from how such incidents are usually judged…

I have not much of an opinion about whether this behavior should get a penalty or not… but good stewarding is consistent stewarding, and this is not that. If they are aiming to establish a new stricter and consistent standard here then it seems that should have been articulated in the race-director’s notes and driver’s briefing at the start of the weekend. If this batch of stewards just don’t know the relevant precedents and backing up the pack will be fine again next race… well… doing better than that would be nice.

  • Fallstar@mander.xyzEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I think it is fair. He is disadvantaging Charles and Alex. The condition is because it was under the safety car Charles and Alex can’t overtake him because he is driving slow. Their logic of it is okay to slow down only applies in full race conditions where he can defend and try to stop them overtaking him.

  • TVPaulD@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I do think it’s a bit odd they used the Unsportsmanlike Conduct rule for it, but it’s also a perfectly valid way to enforce a longstanding precedent. Exploiting the Safety Car rules to impede other drivers has been pretty consistently off limits, so it feels like a bit of a storm in a teacup to kick up a fuss over the wording used for the breach. It’s not like the penalty was unusual, a 5s Time Penalty is basically the weakest possible sporting penalty outside things which are effectively warnings.