Verstappen backs Norris defiance of penalty points
Max Verstappen believes it's time to review F1's penalty points system, insisting Lando Norris doesn't deserve to be on the verge of a race ban following the McLaren driver's sanction in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Norris was handed a five-second time penalty and two penalty points on his super licence for pushing Sergio Perez off the track on lap 4 of Sunday's race.
The Briton's penalty tally now sits at 10 points, or two points off a one-race ban. However, Norris will revert to 8 points ahead of next week's British Grand Prix in conformity with the 12-month rolling period during which the points are counted.
But the 21-year-old will still need to be on his best behaviour with just a 4-point margin available until the end of the season.
After Sunday's race, queried on his current penalty tally, Norris rightly argued that the sanctions levied upon him by the stewards in the past twelve months were related to rather mild transgressions, such as the 3 points he earned at Baku last month for failing to pit under the red flag in qualifying.
"There should be decisions when someone’s done something dangerous and put someone in harm’s way and done something that they clearly shouldn’t have done – and then you have racing, when people have to use common sense," said the Briton who has never succumbed to dirty tactics or carless behaviour on the race track.
"Like the incident in Baku with the red flag and not boxing when I should have done, I didn’t put anyone in harm’s way, in fact it was the opposite, and I did everything safely.
"Why should I deserve penalty points for that? Why should I deserve penalty points today for someone going into the gravel?
"Nothing I’ve done is dangerous. Maybe in some cases you deserve an on-track penalty because you done something bad in terms of racing, and you just made a mistake.
"But then you have things that people do every now and then, which is purely dangerous.
"If you do generally overtake in a yellow flag and do something that will put people in danger, then I understand penalty points for a driver and if that adds up you get a race ban.
"But for little things like this is just stupid in my opinion, it’s not what Formula 1 should be.
"I would expect and hope that other people would back me up on this kind of opinion."
Sat alongside Norris in the post-race drivers' conference, race winner Max Verstappen chimed in to offer his support to the McLaren charger.
"I do, [back you up]" said the Dutchman. "How many did you get, two? So, if you would have six of these incidents, like today, if you get that six times I don’t think you deserve a ban. It’s just not correct.
The day's winner, who has found himself at odds with the stewards in the past more times than he cares to remember, suggested an overhaul of the penalty system was in order.
"I’ve been there myself, I’ve been at nine or 10 points myself," added the Red Bull driver. "It’s how it goes.
"But I don’t think with the things you got the penalty points for, let’s say you would get to 12, you don’t deserve a ban for that.
"We should look into that [system]."
The current penalty system was introduced by the FIA in 2014 and was devised to punish repeat offenders. But no driver has so far reached the 12-point limit within a rolling 12-month period.
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