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Lando Norris may have felt the penalty that wrecked his Qatar Grand Prix was fair enough, but plenty others - including his McLaren boss - really weren't sure, as Formula 1 stewarding and race direction came under yet more scrutiny.
Here are our team's thoughts on the various penalties and decisions that shaped a wild Lusail race.
Where's the accountability?
Scott Mitchell-Malm
There is no excuse to leave the race running in green-flag conditions with a clear piece of debris on the track. Especially when that can very easily turn into many smaller pieces of debris.
I also don’t understand why there were double waved yellows on the scene (especially considering there clearly wasn’t any urgency to remove the debris!). Double waved yellows are reserved for serious situations – slow down, reduce speed significantly, there is a hazard wholly or partly blocking the track and/or marshals working on or beside the track.
But that wasn’t the case. So why was it necessary? I stress that in asking that, I am not saying that impacts the Lando Norris penalty. Whether the yellows should’ve been there or not, they were there, and the rules are very clear. Norris was bang to rights.
Sadly, an expected explanation from the FIA failed to materialise. It was promised to media on Sunday night but at around 1am Qatar time we were informed it would most likely be Monday morning. Make of that what you will - I can’t help but wonder why it takes so long if the explanations are readily available.
I now expect little more than a convoluted justification of all that happened without a hint that anything could have been managed better. The FIA is clearly closing ranks given its rejection of the recent scrutiny of the president’s decision to overhaul race control.
Contrary to what some might believe, many of us are not interested in pointing fingers or playing the blame game. The race director doesn’t need to be hung out to dry. The safety car driver doesn’t need to be criticised. People make mistakes, systems fail, things go wrong.
What harm is there in a little accountability?
Poor from race control and Norris
Josh Suttill
A race defined by two big errors from me.
Error number one was race control for its woeful mishandling of the errant wing mirror.
Yes, it’s difficult for Rui Marques in only his second weekend in charge, but it was even clear to any semi-experienced fan watching that action was needed before Valtteri Bottas ran his Sauber over it.
You didn’t need to have ever been a steward let alone a race director to know doing nothing but waving the double waved yellow lap after lap was the wrong call.
Thank goodness nobody was hurt and there were only potentially title-deciding consequences from it.
Standout error number two was Norris not lifting for the yellow flags. An extreme penalty but not undeserved given he committed a dangerous infringement.
Yet another example of a mistake that makes a huge difference in a close Norris vs Max Verstappen fight in 2024. Norris isn’t beating Verstappen in 2025 without a significant car advantage all year long.
Harsh penalties
Gary Anderson
Any penalty and its outcome on the race result will always be questionable. However I think it’s more about consistency.
Was a drive-through the correct penalty for Lewis Hamilton for speeding in the pit entry while the field was behind the safety car? Personally, I think it is a bit heavy-handed and a five second time penalty would be more fitting.
For Norris, a 10-second stop and go, that’s enough to destroy a driver's race. Yes this is a safety issue but there is a wide window of safety. If a car has crashed and the driver is still in or near the car then OK, but a wing mirror that has fallen off is not really an extreme.
All of these are stewards' decisions and they have to work to the rulebook (which I don’t think is adequate for Formula 1 as it is today).
I agree that a VSC should have been used immediately to clear that debris and that is a decision for the race director to make, not the stewards.
Somewhere very soon the penalties and the application need revising and standardising so that the teams and drivers know what they are getting themselves into and that they have to play a more active role in adhering to them.
A mirror saved a snoozefest!
Samarth Kanal
That Qatar Grand Prix was set to be a snoozefest if it wasn’t for Alex Albon’s stricken wing mirror in the middle of the track and a bafflingly slow decision to deploy a virtual safety car in the kind of situation it was designed for in the first place. Sure, a wing mirror is tiny, but it had big consequences.
There was plenty of outrage and drama from Lusail but it wasn’t much of a race at all - overtaking was incredibly hard and drivers were forced to send it into the inside or outside of Turn 1 and hope their rivals wouldn’t encounter understeer and punt them off into the gravel, or oversteer and send them both spinning. And that happened quite a few times.
The FIA’s decision to shorten the DRS zone is the culprit in this case. We can scoff at DRS all we want but it’s a necessity in modern F1. It needs to be deployed correctly. Today it looked like DRS transformed sector one into a mosh pit.
As for the penalty chaos, we’ll never hit peak consistency - but this weekend was particularly weird given Verstappen was given a slightly harsh and unusual one-place (?!) grid penalty on Saturday. Then we had Norris and Hamilton being given brutal penalties on Sunday. Lance Stroll’s penalty for having understeer and hitting Alex Albon was also heavy handed at the start.
The FIA needs an uncontroversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and a painless winter to reset itself and let the heat die down.
I wouldn’t bet on either.
