Lando Norris was not too happy how Carlos Sainz was allowed to re-start in F1 Monaco GP after his original crash, terming it unfair.
The original start in F1 Monaco GP was gleeful one for McLaren and especially Norris who saw Ferrari’s Sainz stop right in front of his eyes and a spot on the podium going towards his name by the end of the famed grand prix on Sunday.
That glee turned sour when the red flag was called for a major incident behind. Since Zhou Guanyu didn’t cross the Safety Car Line, the start order for the re-start of F1 Monaco GP went back to the original positioning of the cars which put Sainz back in third.
Under the red flag, they were to put the fix as much and continue on eventually to finish third where Norris had to settle for fourth. The Brit was a bit unhappy about the situation terming it as an unfair situation for drivers who did nothing wrong at any point.
“It’s always fun to drive around here, but at the same time there’s nothing you can do, especially with the red flag at the beginning,” said Norris. “That ruined any other opportunities that might have come our way with strategy, tyre saving and stuff like that. So it’s a bit of a shame.
“Carlos got quite lucky that there was a red flag because he was out, or last, and that was his own fault. For him to get it back was obviously annoying because it put me back down to fourth. You win some you lose some in those situations with a red flag. Sometimes it helps you out, sometimes it hurts you a bit.
“We lost out from it, and Carlos was the lucky one. Otherwise, there was nothing you could do, no pitstops, nothing, just driving slowly until the end. As I said, I don’t think it’s the most fair thing, but I’m sure there’s been moments in the past where maybe I’ve been fortunate from it and they could have they fixed the car a little bit or something like that.
“When you think of it in just a blunt way, it is frustrating and unfair, that because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain amount of cars or whatever, whatever the rule is, didn’t cross the line before the red flag and blah, blah, that he gets to undo that mistake and gets a free pit stop. It’s unfair,” summed up Norris.
Elaborating further, the Brit recalled the Italian GP in Monza where Pierre Gasly took the win against Sainz after the Frenchman was able to change his tyres under the red flag. While he says the circumstances are different, but it is down to the rules allowing it.
“They’re the rules, he won because he got a free pitstop onto some different tyres,” said Norris. “Unless you want to say you’re taking that win away from him, all of a sudden, it’s the same situation. I guess this one was more that Sainz made a mistake himself. He ran into Oscar and gave himself a puncture.
“So that is just very lucky,” summed up Norris, who felt the idea to pit with the gap to George Russell was good on paper but not as much practical as it looked at that moment. It was a risk and would have been very tight for him and the mechanics.
“It was cuspy and there was those little opportunities, but at the same time, if you have a slightly slow stop or something, just wasn’t worth it,” noted Norris. “So as much as it can help sometimes, there’s always the risks of doing such a thing and if Carlos said he made a little mistake or touches the barrier a little bit, you’re also like, ‘Well, we should have stayed out and not done it’.
“You always think of what could you have done, should you have done and it’s impossible to answer it correctly. But we did what we could, I think the pace was strong from the car today, which is another good positive thing for the future and in the races we’ve been very strong lately. So yeah, we’ll keep it up. We’ll keep pushing and as let’s say not happy as I am, a fourth and a second for us is still an amazing result,” summed up Norris.
Meanwhile, team boss Andrea Stella added: “In terms of pitting Lando, yes, we did consider and naturally we did consider it for the entire race but Ferrari I think they did a good job of always keeping Lando in the pit window of one of the Mercedes. So yeah, the pit window might have appeared before a single lap but it would have been still a bit of a risk because as soon as the pit stop had been just one second slower than normal we could have ended up behind a Mercedes.
“And then it was gone because like we have seen even if you were three seconds faster, there was no way to overtake. So I think a good job by Ferrari in avoiding that we could take the pit window and then obviously it would have been an interesting race with Lando on fresher tires. But based on what I’ve seen today on overtaking I think there was no way that even with the fresh medium we could have passed Carlos. So I don’t think it would have changed the result.”
Here’s Oscar Piastri, Andrea Stella on P2 and rules
Here’s how F1 Monaco GP panned out
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