The battle at the front of the Qatar Grand Prix was fought between two drivers, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who were essentially within two seconds of each other for most of the race. However, the McLaren driver had to settle for a tenth-place finish, with one point that could be useful for the team in the Constructors’ Championship battle, but also a reminder of the missed opportunity.
What weighed heavily was the 10-second stop-and-go penalty for not slowing down enough under double yellow flags, which dropped Lando Norris from second to the back of the pack, especially since it was given after a Safety Car, when the field had already bunched up.
The British driver then managed to fight back to tenth, overtaking several cars, but it was clear that the goal was to fight for the win and secure the Constructors’ title, while now the lead over Ferrari has shrunk to 21 points.
Speaking after the race, McLaren explained that they did not contest the penalty given to their driver since, indeed, Norris did not slow down enough under the double yellow flags, keeping the accelerator pedal fully pressed. In interviews, the Woking team driver explained that he hadn’t noticed the yellow flags.
“I’m disappointed, of course. I let the team down, they gave me a great car today, the fastest overall, and I ruined it. I don’t know what I did wrong. I’m not an idiot, if there’s a yellow flag I know I have to slow down. That’s rule number one, which you learn with go-karts. For some reason today I didn’t do it, either because I didn’t see it or I missed it, or something like that. And I can only apologize to the team for the rest of the year,” Norris explained.
Speaking to the microphones after the race, Andrea Stella, McLaren’s Team Principal, confirmed that Lando did not lift off the throttle, so the penalty was correct, although he criticized the fact that the yellow flags were only displayed briefly and then removed, even though debris on the straight remained.
“We checked whether Lando slowed down or not, but he went through that sector full throttle. We have to say that the yellow flags were displayed as soon as Lando entered that sector, but that’s no justification. It’s the driver’s responsibility to recognize that he’s in a sector where the yellow flag is displayed and slow down accordingly. I would say it’s peculiar that the yellow flags were displayed in that sector and then removed while the circumstances remained the same with debris still on track,” said Andrea Stella.
However, there’s one element that McLaren has not accepted: the fact that they believe the penalty is disproportionate to the infraction, as it was later turned into a 10-second stop-and-go. “As for the severity of the penalty, this application completely lacks a sense of proportion between the level of risk and the penalty given. It also completely lacks specificity, so we can look at and analyze the case, clarify the level of risk, and only then give a penalty that is proportional to the infraction. It seems like they looked at an old rulebook that says to apply this penalty, but it’s something against racing because it’s completely disproportionate.”
McLaren believes that although the penalty was deserved, it is too severe for the type of infraction committed. The FIA, for its part, has always been very careful about safety-related matters and, in fact, in the past has given the same exact penalty for similar infractions. For example, in 2021, Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin were penalized with a stop-and-go (converted into 30 seconds post-race) during the Austrian GP for the same reason, and even further back, Kimi Räikkönen received a similar penalty in 2017 in Belgium.
However, for Stella, there is another element, which is the specificity of the situation: “Which incident are we considering? Was there an accident? Is there an immediate danger? We mean the specificity of the situation in which the infraction occurred, and specificity leads to proportionality.”
“The penalty must be proportional to the severity of the infraction. Looking at the data, Lando didn’t slow down, but the lack of specificity and proportionality is very concerning. And it’s something that can impact the championship battle. It’s an issue that the FIA must seriously consider if they want fairness to be part of Formula 1.”
Clearly, the penalty had a significant impact, as it dropped Norris to the back of the pack, giving Ferrari the chance to close the gap in the standings: “It’s definitely a missed opportunity with the pace we had, and considering that Lando seemed very close to Max in the last stint on the hard tires, we lost a chance to close the fight for the championship here,” said McLaren’s Team Principal.
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