According to Lando Norris, his movement was punished too harshly in Brazil.
After the first SC stage, he met British driver Charles Leclerc, who ended up in a collision. The Monegasque wanted to pass his opponent as soon as possible, not wanting to waste too much time behind him, while the 23-year-old defended his position. But Norris didn’t leave enough space, so the Ferrari driver ended up in the gravel bed and then in the wall.
Miraculously, Leclerc managed to move forward and finally the finished in fourth place, while Norris received a penalty for his movement. But according to the Briton, it was a simple racing incident, so the stewards acted too harshly. The McLaren driver believes the drivers’ point of view needs to be taken into greater consideration, because judging from the outside, not everything is black and white.
“I think it was very difficult for them (stewards) to imagine themselves in my situation. Charles tried to turn on the outside, but that’s the first thing you learn in racing that it’s very risky to overtake there. Because the other person can’t necessarily leave room. We were in one of the fastest parts of the track, he took the risk, not me. I did everything I could. I didn’t try to chase him away or go to him, because that would have been stupid. I didn’t want to ruin mine race. So, if they were in my shoes… in fact, if Charles was in my shoes, he would have done exactly the same thing.” – he has declared Norris.
At Interlagos, Derek Warwick and Roberto Moreno, who have a racing background, were also board members. But according to Norris, more former pilots should go to court.
“They only look at the accident from the external camera and say that he caused everything? Do they understand that the person made every effort to avoid the collision and so on? We need more ex-drivers than they can imagine in our situation.”
