Norris penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct has little precedent
Norris penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct has little precedent
Lando Norris and McLaren were caught out by his "unsportsmanlike behaviour" penalty in the Canadian Grand Prix
Article from the-race.com on the penalty Norris received for backing up the pack to create space for a double-stack. The article starts:
Lando Norris and his McLaren Formula 1 team were surprised by his penalty for “unsportsmanlike” conduct in the Canadian Grand Prix and felt it was a departure from how such incidents are usually judged...
I have not much of an opinion about whether this behavior should get a penalty or not... but good stewarding is consistent stewarding, and this is not that. If they are aiming to establish a new stricter and consistent standard here then it seems that should have been articulated in the race-director's notes and driver's briefing at the start of the weekend. If this batch of stewards just don't know the relevant precedents and backing up the pack will be fine again next race... well... doing better than that would be nice.
I think it is fair. He is disadvantaging Charles and Alex. The condition is because it was under the safety car Charles and Alex can't overtake him because he is driving slow. Their logic of it is okay to slow down only applies in full race conditions where he can defend and try to stop them overtaking him.
Responded in another comment, my own issue is not whether the activity is allowed or not, but rather whether teams can predict what's allowed in advance. No team is surprised by a penalty for speeding in the pit late, and the rule cited there is always consistent. Similarly, teams should know how much of a gap they can or can't create under safety car conditions, and the rule enforcing that constraint should be consistently cited.
I do think it’s a bit odd they used the Unsportsmanlike Conduct rule for it, but it’s also a perfectly valid way to enforce a longstanding precedent. Exploiting the Safety Car rules to impede other drivers has been pretty consistently off limits, so it feels like a bit of a storm in a teacup to kick up a fuss over the wording used for the breach. It’s not like the penalty was unusual, a 5s Time Penalty is basically the weakest possible sporting penalty outside things which are effectively warnings.
Exploiting the Safety Car rules to impede other drivers has been pretty consistently off limits...
This isn't an area of regulations I've paid much attention to in my historical viewing, but the reporting disagrees with this assessment. Here's a quote from Brundle's weekend debrief:
Even rival team managers were telling me post-race that it's been normal and accepted behaviour to build a small gap behind the Safety Car before a double team pit stop for a few years now, which indeed was Lando's firm view.
To the extent that your assessment of this being consistently off-limits is true, I agree with your conclusion. The reporting disagrees with that premise though, and it's not JUST McLaren quotes saying this is a change in enforcement.
This is always a problem in F1. If teams don't know how rules are enforced, how are they supposed to abide?!