Lando Norris, McLaren Formula 1 driver, feels “frustrating and unfair” over Carlos Sainz getting back his original position. The latter found himself in a sweet spot after a red flag because of race restart at Monaco Grand Prix.
At the start of the race Sainz and Oscar Piastri had a little contact while going through the first corner. It put the former out of the race because of a tire puncture.
However, to his favor Sergio Perez and two Haas cars piled up bringing red flag for the race. It served a way out for the Sainz to be in the race.
F1 sporting regulations dictate the order for the restart. It dictates that “will be taken at the last point at which it was possible to determine the position of all cars. All such cars will then be permitted to resume the sprint session or the race.”
Most cars had finished first timing sector except Guanyu Zhou from Sauber. Therefore, FIA determined the order of restart putting Sainz back to his position of starting grid. It effectively put him in a position to be on the podium.
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Norris had to take penalty for it as he lost his P3 slot, which frustrated him.
“I don’t think it’s the most fair thing. But I’m sure there’s been moments in the past where maybe I’ve been fortunate from it and they could have they fixed the car a little bit or something like that,” he said.
“When you think of it in just a blunt way, it is frustrating and unfair, that because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain amount of cars or whatever, whatever the rule is, didn’t cross the line before the red flag and blah, blah, that he gets to undo that mistake and gets a free pit stop. It’s unfair.”
Other drivers share the same opinion with Norris, because they failed to understand the regulation. George Russell, Mercedes driver, said: “It’s not correct. I don’t know what the ruling is exactly. But yeah, that was a bit strange.”
Andrea Stella, McLaren boss, expressed more understanding of the regulations. “I think what the FIA did was the best thing to do,” he said after the race. But he admits that Sainz had been lucky in this scenario.
