Max Verstappen has come in aide of Lando Norris with regards to his F1 Austrian GP penalty and the subsequent topic of a ban, as Andreas Seidl and Michael Masi add on.
It was not just the penalty and a loss of second place which upset McLaren’s Norris after F1 Austrian GP, the Brit was talkative about his points on superlicense too. He now has 10 against his name, where a total of 12 will lead to a race ban.
There will be some respite for Norris, however, where two points will be chucked off before the British GP, but he will have to be careful with eight against his name until the latter half of the 2021 F1 season. He found some support on it from Red Bull’s Verstappen.
While they couldn’t speak much on the time penalty, but both Verstappen and Norris shared similar views on him getting points on his superlicense for offences like F1 Austrian GP. “In my opinion, they should be decisions about when someone’s done something dangerous and put someone in harm’s way and done something that they shouldn’t have done and then you have racing and when people have to use common sense,” the Brit said.
“Like my approach of the incident in Baku with the red flag and not boxing when I should have done, like, I didn’t put anyone in harm’s way, in fact it was the opposite and I did everything safely, like why should I deserve penalty points for that? Why should I deserve penalty points for someone going into the gravel.
“Yeah, nothing I’ve done is dangerous and I don’t feel like, maybe in some cases you deserve an on-track penalty, because you’ve done something bad in terms of racing and you just made a mistake but then you have things that people do every now and then which are purely dangerous.
“If you do genuinely overtake in a yellow flag and do something else that’s clearly a rule that will put people in danger then I understand penalty points for a driver and if that adds up you get a driver ban or race ban but for little things like this, it’s stupid in my opinion. It’s not what Formula 1 should be. Yeah, I don’t know. I would expect and hope that other people would back me up on this kind of opinion,” summed up Norris.
His good friend Verstappen – who has had his fare share of trouble with penalties – chipped in with his view, supporting Norris. “So if you would have six of these incidents, I don’t think you deserve a ban for what he did today or whatever. I think it’s just not correct,” he said. “I’ve been there myself, I was at nine at some points myself. It’s how it goes.
“Actually, what you got the penalty points for, say you would get to 12, you don’t deserve a ban for that. So there’s stuff… I’ve said it before, myself two years ago, that we should look into that but let’s see,” summed up Verstappen, as McLaren team boss Seidl, agreed that the penalty points on superlicense certainly needs a review.
“From my point of view, it needs a review,” said Seidl to media including FormulaRapida.net. “Because I think we all agree that for an incident like that, getting a race ban as a consequence, can’t be the right thing. That’s it. I think Michael [Masi] gave a great quote after the incident in Baku that every go-kart driver, every six year old driver knows what to do when the red flag comes up.
“So, it would be interesting to see what he says about this incident. It’s more fun. In the end these guys also do not have an easy job in making these judgement. Still, I think sometimes what is missing a bit from my point of view is the driver input as well or the driver point of view.
“I mean there was Derek [Warwick] there, so I don’t know what the input was from him. But again, if I look at this incident, I just can’t see how he got a penalty for that. I just can’t understand it. It doesn’t change anything, if I understand it or not. But that’s why I say we need to move on. But it’s just frustrating,” summed up Seidl.
From FIA Race Director Masi’s side, it was a clear point on the superlicense situation. The Australian noted that this topic has been discussed multiple times and last year, the F1 teams felt there was no change required on it, and so it stayed as it is.
“To be fair, it’s a penalty point system that exists, so it’s been there all the way through no different to those driving on the road in a lot of countries that have the maximum number of points that they have to abide by,” said Masi to written media. “And they have to adjust driving style and so forth accordingly. So no, I don’t think they’re harsh.
“It was discussed late last year. And it’s funny because it affects different drivers in different teams in different ways. And the consensus was at the end of last year from involving everyone, teams, the FIA and F1, that there shouldn’t be a change for this year. And it’s not something that we would ever change mid-year. The penalty scale is something that the teams all agree upon, and actually have input into at the start of the year. That is what the stewards use,” summed up Masi.
Here’s Andreas Seidl on pushing for P2 with Lando Norris
Here’s whole penalty saga, including the view of Lando Norris