Tag: FIA Stewards

‘I’m not going to cry about penalties’ – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says he isn’t going to get overly upset by the penalties he was given in the Mexico City Grand Prix, but more about the pace Red Bull showed. The championship leader received two 10s time penalties – one for forcing Lando Norris off …

Max Verstappen says he isn’t going to get overly upset by the penalties he was given in the Mexico City Grand Prix, but more about the pace Red Bull showed.

The championship leader received two 10s time penalties — one for forcing Lando Norris off track at Turn 4, and then another for doing the same a few corners later and gaining a lasting advantage by overtaking the McLaren. Verstappen says his opinion on those incidents is not central to his current concerns, after finishing sixth and being unable to close in on the Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes ahead.

“Honestly, 20s is a lot, but I’m not going to cry about it, and I’m not gong to share my opinion,” Verstappen said. “The biggest problem I have is today was a bad day in terms of race pace; that was quite clear again on the mediums and hard tires.

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“I just felt that Turn 4 was a bit more of like question mark, [Turn 8] is what it is. Honestly, those two things are also not my problem. The problem is that we are too slow and that’s why I’m being put in those positions. That is my problem.

“To get back to sixth was alright, but I couldn’t even fight the Mercedes drivers in front. I had no grip, was sliding a lot, couldn’t brake… [It was a] very tough one.”

Given the past two races have seen multiple incidents involving both Norris and Verstappen, the Dutchman says he doesn’t see any difficulties between the two.

“We didn’t touch, so [it was] just racing hard,” he said. “I just drive how I think I have to drive. Last week that was alright, this week a 20s penalty. It is what it is; life goes on you know.”

Although he is concerned by the race pace Red Bull showed — losing 10 points to Lando Norris in the drivers’ championship in the process — Verstappen says there have been signs that the team is getting on top of recent issues with its car.

“We’re trying, but I mean, Austin was more promising, here a bit more tough,” he said. “A bit odd — a few more things to look at. Hopefully Brazil we can be a bit more competitive.

“Still, 47 points.”

McLaren right of review request over Norris U.S. GP penalty rejected

McLaren has officially failed to gain a review of the penalty handed out to Lando Norris in the United States Grand Prix. Norris was given a 5s time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when overtaking Max Verstappen late in the …

McLaren has officially failed to gain a review of the penalty handed out to Lando Norris in the United States Grand Prix.

Norris was given a 5s time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when overtaking Max Verstappen late in the race, with the penalty dropping him back behind his title rival in the final classification. McLaren lodged a petition for a right of review into the penalty on Thursday, with a hearing on Friday determining whether a significant and relevant new element existed that wasn’t available at the time of the decision.

McLaren claimed that its new element was the stewards’ document describing the penalty itself from Austin, that stated, “Car No. 4 was overtaking Car No. 1 on the outside but was not level with Car No. 1 at the apex,” McLaren argued this was an error because it had evidence that Norris had already overtaken and was ahead of Verstappen “at the braking zone,” and that therefore this error in the decision was the significant and relevant new element.

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Following the hearing on Friday afternoon — that took place with representatives from McLaren and Red Bull — the original stewards decided that the petition was not sustainable, because it claims the new element is the document itself.

“A petition for review is made in order to correct an error (of fact or law) in a decision,” the stewards’ decision read. “Any new element must demonstrate that error.

“In this case, the concept that the written Decision (document number 69) was the significant and relevant new element, or that an error in the decision was a new element, is not sustainable and is, therefore, rejected.”

The result of the race at Circuit of The Americas therefore stands, with Verstappen retaining a 57-point lead over Norris heading into this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Norris hurt by penalty inconsistency amid battle with Verstappen at U.S. GP

Lando Norris says the inconsistency of stewarding decisions is frustrating after losing third place over overtaking Max Verstappen off the track in the United States Grand Prix. Verstappen overtook Norris at the start of the race with a move up the …

Lando Norris says the inconsistency of stewarding decisions is frustrating after losing third place over overtaking Max Verstappen off the track in the United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen overtook Norris at the start of the race with a move up the inside into Turn 1 but it forced both drivers off track at the corner exit as the Red Bull completed the move. That incident wasn’t noted by the stewards, but Norris was then handed a five-second time penalty later in the race when he overtook Verstappen around the outside at Turn 12 and the championship leader’s defense again saw both drivers leave the track.

“It’s tough,” Norris said. “There’s different alterations of things. It’s a tough job to steward these kinds of things. For me, whatever I did, I did. For me the point that is incorrect is what Max did, which is defend his position by going off the track, and would effectively be keeping his position, which is not correct.

“He went off the track by defending, and has overdefended and made a mistake, and therefore has gained from that. At the same time, because of that, I’ve had to go off the track. It’s impossible for people to know if I could have made it [stick] on the track or I couldn’t. You can’t steward that kind of thing.

“But those are the rules. They seem to change, because it seems like it’s quite inconsistent from say what happened in Austria, where Max didn’t get a penalty and went off the track, gained an advantage. There’s again inconsistency, but it’s tough.

“For me, it’s just a rushed decision. They don’t hear or understand our points, which they should do after the race. They just want to make a decision at the time, so you don’t alter points and podiums and things like that. Therefore it’s a rushed decision, and they don’t hear my point of discussion or my team’s point or Max’s point, which I don’t think is maybe the most correct thing.

“Today it was a penalty. Not a lot I can do apart from just accept that. I tried, we both tried, it was a great battle, I really enjoyed it, it was tough. Max drove very well and defended very well, but he ended up on top, so congrats to him.”

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Norris dropped from third ahead of Verstappen to fourth behind him as a result of the penalty, and says it’s particularly tough fighting with the Dutchman because of how hard he races, believing there were multiple occasions when the Red Bull driver’s moves could have been penalized.

“I think both times Max went off the track, he had a lot of commitment to keep me behind,” the McLaren driver said. “The thing is with Max, you’ve got to commit. People don’t understand that kind of thing. With Max, you can’t just go half-hearted.

“Turn 1 is a bit harder to say, whether it’s I didn’t commit enough, but the fact that he committed so much speed … he again went off the track. I mean I can’t just dive up the inside of someone, run off, and then keep the position in normal running. But for some reason, it’s completely OK in lap one on Turn 1. It’s a tough one … It hurts today.”

However, Norris made clear his disappointment was in the uncertainty created by the stewarding, rather than with Verstappen himself for the fight they had.

“I think Max drove very well,” he explained. “It’s very hard to do what we’re doing. It’s hard when you’re side by side, you’re completely on side of the track, to guess where your braking marker is. You’re going quicker than you have before, because you used the battery. The tires are older, there’s different bumps, a lot of dirt…

“We’re battling and fighting hard, so I respect the battle that we had. It was a good one, it was enjoyable. I think it was respectful. I think Turn 1, I didn’t do the correct thing, but I felt like what happened at the end of the race was more my side. Otherwise, it was a good battle, and I enjoyed it. We just didn’t come out on top because I didn’t do a good enough job.

“A bit of clarity [is needed]. But look, if I defended better in Turn 1 and wasn’t driving like a muppet… I should have led after Turn 1, and we shouldn’t have had this conversation in the first place.”

Steiner summoned to stewards after comments

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has been summoned to the stewards at the Spanish grand prix for comments he made calling for the FIA to invest in making stewarding a full-time professional role. Steiner was unhappy at the inconsistency shown by …

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has been summoned to the stewards at the Spanish grand prix for comments he made calling for the FIA to invest in making stewarding a full-time professional role.

Steiner was unhappy at the inconsistency shown by the stewards in handing Nico Hulkenberg a time penalty for causing a collision on the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix when Haas disputes any contact was made, and then seeing other collisions going unpunished. The team principal asked: “Do we need a different system for the stewards? Because every professional sport has got professionals being referees and stuff like this.

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“F1 is one of the biggest sports in the world and we still have laymen deciding on the fate of people that invest millions in their careers. It’s always a discussion because there’s no consistency.”

While Steiner was speaking in a Haas-organized media session on Thursday, he has been summoned to the stewards at 2:30pm local time in Barcelona for an alleged breach of the FIA International Sporting Code, with the summons referencing three articles.

Those articles relate to:

• “Any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally”

• “Any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motor sport and on the values defended by the FIA”

• “Any misconduct towards, but not limited to: license-holders, officials, officers or member of the staff of the FIA”

One of the stewards in Monaco — Felix Holter — is also on duty in Spain but has recused himself from the hearing to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

Frustrated Steiner calls for professional F1 stewards

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says it is time for Formula 1 to employ permanent stewards after being frustrated by a penalty for Nico Hulkenberg in Monaco. Hulkenberg (pictured at right, above, with Steiner) was penalized for causing a …

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says it is time for Formula 1 to employ permanent stewards after being frustrated by a penalty for Nico Hulkenberg in Monaco.

Hulkenberg (pictured at right, above, with Steiner) was penalized for causing a collision when overtaking Logan Sargeant on the opening lap, potentially making contact with Lance Stroll ahead of him. However, Steiner says there is no definitive footage that shows any contact was made, and pointed to numerous other collisions that went unpunished as a sign of the inconsistency in decision-making from volunteer stewards that necessitates the need for full-time professionals.

“Do we need a different system for the stewards?” Steiner asked. “Because every professional sport has got professionals being referees and stuff like this. F1 is one of the biggest sports in the world and we still have laymen deciding on the fate of people that invest millions in their careers. It’s always a discussion because there’s no consistency.

“I don’t want to blame any particular person on this, but if they’re not all there all the time then this is just like a job every…. It’s not even a job, because in a job you can get sacked because you get paid, and if you do a bad job you get sacked. You cannot get sacked because you do not get paid. I think we need to step it up.

“I think it’s now time. We’ve been discussing this for years and years and we always go back to this. Every other sport has professional referees, American racing — NASCAR, IndyCar, how many times do you hear problems with the stewards or with the race director’s decisions? Very rarely. But they are doing it completely differently, there are full-time people working there.

“I’m always saying ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ not that I have to prove that I was innocent, because that doesn’t work for me — that’s not how I look at life.”

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Confirming he had asked the FIA for an explanation and proof of the collision, he says there was no clear reasoning for why it wasn’t treated as a lap 1 incident that shows a further gap in the policing.

“Yes, we asked that and we got a very broad… It was never really decided and nobody really knows what was decided, so now they try to make a definition of what is a lap 1 incident. We had it last year with the black and orange flag, which we got three times and in the middle of season they changed the rules.

“For every team, especially for the teams from P5 to P10 this year, every point counts. Obviously we weren’t in the points and I wouldn’t say that we would have been in the points, but to prevent it in the future can you imagine if you were in the points and you got a penalty for this? This could change your end-of-year result, and by not having done anything wrong. So it’s pretty disappointing.”