Lando Norris believes there have been “too many times” when Formula 1 stewards have failed to understand the driver’s perspective when judging who’s at fault in a collision.
The McLaren driver collided with Charles Leclerc while fighting for third place in the Brazilian Grand Prix, shortly after the first safety car restart and a separate collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at Turn 1.
After getting close to Norris at Turn 4, Leclerc attempted the switchback and moved to the outside of Norris, running alongside him up the hill through Turn 5 until they got to Turn 6 kink, where Norris ran onto the kerb and then clipped the right rear of Leclerc’s Ferrari, sending him into the wall.
Leclerc had to pit for repairs but mounted an impressive comeback drive – aided by a late-race safety car – and finished in fourth place.
The stewards reviewed the incident from “several angles, including in-car cameras, CCTV and broadcast video” and determined that Norris was “wholly at fault” for the incident.
The verdict said Norris “touched the kerb at the apex and understeered into the car of Leclerc”.
In addition to a five-second time penalty in the race, Norris was handed two penalty points – his first collision-related penalty of the season.
Although that penalty made little difference to Norris’s end result as an electrical problem curtailed his race 20 laps from the finish anyway, he was unimpressed with the penalty and called for change.
“I think it’s so difficult for them to put themselves in my shoes in this instance,” Norris said after the race.
“Charles went around the outside, the first thing you learn in racing is normally not to go around the outside and normally people need to leave a lot of space.
“We’re in one of the quickest parts of the track, he’s in a risky position, not me.
“But I did everything I could. It’s not like I tried to run him off or do anything that’s just stupid, I don’t want to ruin my own race.
“So if someone was in my shoes – if Charles was in my shoes – he would have done exactly the same. If any good driver was in my shoes they would have done exactly the same.
“Do they just look at the incident from an outboard camera and say, ‘He’s caused the crash’ or do they actually understand, ‘Have they done everything to avoid a crash?’ and so on.
“There needs to be more drivers that can understand what it’s like to be in my position or Charles position or something.”
Of the four members of the Brazilian GP stewards panel, two were ex-racers – F1 podium finishers Derek Warwick and Roberto Moreno – albeit drivers who last raced in F1 in 1993 and 1995 respectively.
The stewards were enacting guidance given at the start of the 2022 season in the wake of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s controversial clashes throughout last year.
They state that any driver attempting a move on the outside (Leclerc in this case) must also have a “significant portion” of their car alongside and they will consider if the overtaking car is “ahead of the other car from the apex of the corner”.
Leclerc was significantly alongside Norris going into the corner and marginally ahead of the McLaren at Turn 6 where Norris hit the kerb and understeered into Leclerc.
It was Norris’s responsibility to avoid the contact at that point so his kerb clip and understeer into Leclerc earned him the penalty.
But Norris felt there was a lack of understanding of the driver’s perspective within the stewards’ judgement.
“It’s impossible to have a binary thing in racing because nothing’s ever the same,” said Norris, when asked by The Race if the guidelines resulted in the stewards applying specific reference points to a dynamic situation.
“There’s too many times I feel – nothing against the stewards we have – there’s too many times where I don’t think they understand the position it is to be in the car, driving the car at the speeds we do, at some of the corners we have to drive around.”
Leclerc felt “lucky” and was “surprised” to continue in the race after the contact but felt Norris was unusually aggressive across the weekend.
“Obviously I know that Lando is not this type of guy but for some reason he was very aggressive and also [in the sprint he was] the same with Carlos,” Leclerc said.
“So, I don’t really understand but it’s like this. At the end I don’t expect him to let me pass, he didn’t, but today was too much. He paid the price with the penalty, I guess.”
