Lando Norris was the protagonist at the Canadian Grand Prix of a penalty rarely seen in the history of Formula 1. The stewards penalized him for going too slow behind the safety car.
However, two weeks later, the McLaren man still does not understand the logic applied by the FIA in Montreal. “We are still discussing it with the FIA, because have set a new precedent for what can and cannot be done“, said Norris at the press conference prior to the Austrian Grand Prix.
“There are clear examples of people doing it, or doing what they think I did, on purpose, and no penalty was imposed on them. Now they’ve basically said, ‘You have to be in your delta all the time.’ force them to go fast under the Safety Car, which it doesn’t make sense to me“, sentenced the one from Bristol.
This week it has been known that the FIA has taken into account a precedent from the 2005 season in which Fernando Alonso was involved. The Asturian led the Chinese Grand Prix that year, followed by his teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, when the safety car came out. At that moment, the Italian reduced his pace so that Alonso could distance himself from him, so he could stop in the pits without Fernando blocking him, so he would maintain the position.
Fisichella received a ‘drive through’that is, he was forced to take an extra step on pit lane, so his podium chances were gone.
Since then, 18 years have passed and only one sanction has been imposed for the same reason. Lewis Hamilton suffered it in the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prixwhen he blocked Daniel Ricciardo to open a gap with respect to Valtteri Bottas, who was leading the race.
The FIA has explained to the McLaren team that, in Canada, Norris was going 50 kilometers per hour slower than Oscar Piastriwhich shows that the intention to annoy their rivals was more than evident.
