
Formula 1 governing body FIA has given a clean chit for Max Verstappen, who made an extreme defensive move against Lewis Hamilton at Brazil. The FIA’s decision made some debates inside the F1, and newly McLaren Racing’s youngster Lando Norris claims that Verstappen’s clean chit proves that he did nothing wrong at Austria mid of this season.
Norris also expressing, he did not understand what type of defensive style FIA consider permissible drive. The Brit was received five place grid penalty for the same move he done against Red Bull’s Sergio Perez at Austria. The McLaren boy reminding one more thing that, the only difference in situation being that Perez ran wide into gravel while Hamilton was forced on to an asphalt run-off.
Asked by the source Motorsport.com if he understood why his Austrian incident and Verstappen’s Brazil defense were handled differently, Norris was not entirely clear.
“Kind of,” he said. “Some of the things that we now understand means that I shouldn’t have got a penalty.
“But then also, what types of surfaces are on the outside of the circuit, whether that’s gravel or tarmac or whatever, can also have an effect. Which I don’t think is maybe fair.
“I think if you know there is gravel on the outside, and you know if you’re not completely alongside, which Perez wasn’t, then he’s put himself in that very risky position.”
The McLaren ace is convinced the difference between the run-offs was the deciding factor in his penalty. “That’s the only thing that I believe now must have been the difference, that he wasn’t all the way alongside me, it was like half a car,” he said.
“I gave still a bit of space for him to back out, it wasn’t like I shoved him off, there was no contact made. So from that perspective, there’s no reason I should have got the penalty.
“The only reason I now believe is that there was gravel and not Tarmac. And I feel like that’s a bit of a difficult one to give a penalty on, if there’s gravel and not Tarmac. It’s not my fault, it’s the guy on the outside’s risk he’s taking for himself on the outside of the corner that it’s gravel. That’s up to him. It’s not again, obvious exactly why.
“I still feel like it’s an unfair penalty that I got. But that’s what I have to believe now is the difference from Max’s one last week and my one is that I had gravel.”