The circumstances around Norris’ penalty are quite extraordinary.
a wing mirror came off someone’s car and came to rest on the main straight, off the racing line but in line for anyone veering out to make an overtake
the stewards deployed yellow flags
and did nothing else for 3 or 4 laps. The mirror just sat there with no effort or even plan to retrieve it
then the inevitable, Bottas ran over the wing mirror which shattered in a blizzard of carbon fiber shards that were strewn all over the track
Hamilton and Sainz got punctures
they finally deployed the safety car and cleaned up the mess
What happened to Norris is that, in the middle of this steward-created clusterfuck, he ran down the straight without lifting off the gas. A clear violation of the safety rules for sure. They should have already been under a safety car before Norris was in that position, but Norris still fucked up.
A penalty was merited. Would it be 5 or 10 seconds? Either of which would cost Norris places but he could race to the end and see what damage the time added on would cause.
The stewards did the worst thing possible. They gave him a 10 second stop ‘n’ go penalty, meaning he had to drive into the pits, stop for 10 seconds and then continue. That cost him 36 seconds in total.
With the entire field having been bunched up because of the safety car, Norris came out of the pits dead last.
Bottom line: McLaren leads Ferrari by 21 points going into the last race in Abu Dhabi which is never controversial or the venue for the FIA arbitrarily choosing a title winner.
A 1-2 finish and fastest lap (I’d forgotten that in my previous calculations) is 44 points. The permutations are myriad, but Ferrari is pretty much cooked without a 1-2 finish unless somehow both McLarens fail to finish in the points.
Simply for McLaren, if either one of them finishes 3rd or better, it’s over. If both of them finish 7th or better (i.e. 6th and 7th), it’s over.
Can’t wait to see how the FIA rat fucks it next week.
F1 is turning into the bitchy reality show that DTS makes it out to be.
Russell complained about Verstappen going slowly on the racing line during qualifying and Verstappen got a 1-place grid demotion as a result. Here Max is all on his high horse about losing respect for Russell because I suppose he thinks prison yard rules are in effect or something. Verstappen and his odious, dick-pic sending team boss had a “hilarious” back and forth about it over the radio during the cool down lap that was not at all contrived or peak cringe.
The reality is that all drivers snitch on each other over the radio all the time. F1 is the exact opposite of prison yard rules, with everyone whining to the refs pretty much constantly. In fact, it was Verstappen complaining about how much Norris had gained on him under the yellow flag situation that got Norris the stop-and-go penalty that ended any challenge to Max for the race win.
Crofty always reminds “Sky Glass” customers that they can select any driver’s radio and listen in. 57 laps of “WFW”? NFW.
This appears to be the F1 official page on Threads.
The clip they posted (above) of the Norris infraction shows him going full tilt down the straight and the yellow “flag” light coming on almost as he passes it. Right by the light was a steward waving actual flags. Right behind him was a green light meaning the track was clear.
For this they gave him an unappealable penalty, because they made him serve it during the race under threat of disqualification. If they’d given him even a 30-second penalty without him having to serve it in the pits, it could’ve been argued after the event; this way there was nothing that Norris, McLaren or anyone could do about it.
One again F1 finds a path through the Swiss cheese of the rule book to the advantage of Red Bull. I really don’t fucking get it and never will.
How’s the FIA’s grab for sports washing money going?
Fun Fact: F1 is its own entity that chooses to run under the auspices of the FIA. Given the issues with race management and stewardship that seem to dominate the headlines after every race these days, it cannot be long before F1 decides to break away.
Netflix has propelled F1 into a position where it has a fanbase that is much more broad than motorsport in general…
