McLaren loses appeal of Norris’ punishment – Winston-Salem Journal

McLaren has appealed the penalty Norris received last week at the United States Grand Prix – a step in an attempt to overturn it and bring three-time reigning world champion Verstappen back into his grasp.

The appeal was dismissed late Friday evening.

Norris received a five-second penalty for overtaking Verstappen off the track at the end of the race in Austin, Texas. At the time, the two were racing for third, and the penalty gave Verstappen the final podium.

The change in position extended Verstappen’s lead to 57 points ahead of Sunday’s race in Mexico City, with just five races remaining to decide the title.

Norris maintained he did nothing wrong and, along with many other drivers, argued Verstappen should have been penalized for his defensive driving.

“He did what he thought was right and I did what I thought was right. I still don’t agree and as a team we don’t agree,” Norris said. “It’s something I’m sure we’ll discuss as it’s been a talking point since last weekend. A lot of other drivers didn’t agree with him, the teams didn’t agree with him.”

The same stewards who imposed the USGP penalty heard the appeal via video conference late Friday afternoon.

Verstappen claimed in Mexico that F1 had become too policed ​​- he was ordered to do community service for swearing at a press conference in Singapore last month – and joked that he had to keep a copy of the rules in his car to keep up with all regulations.

“I think we’re getting to a stage where I always need the book in the car. If you look, of course, over the years, the book has grown quite a bit,” said Verstappen. “It’s definitely over-regulated.”

But seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton appeared to side with Norris, claiming Verstappen was regularly treated favorably by stewards.

“I mean, it’s always been a gray area. That’s why he’s been getting away with it for so long,” Hamilton said. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure. We have inconsistencies weekend in, weekend out, obviously, depending on which stewards are there.

“And as a sport we need to level up in all areas,” he continued. “We look at other global sports, they have full-time referees for example and I’m sure that won’t be a bad thing for our sport.”

The situation is so tense between the drivers and the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, that George Russell said a drivers-only meeting was planned for Friday night.

Topics include the idea of ​​hiring permanent stewards to regulate every Grand Prix on the F1 schedule, a new crackdown on swearing and transparency about where fines go when collected by the FIA.

Russell also received a five-second penalty at Texas for forcing Valtteri Bottas, who he was not fighting against.

“I thought my punishment was harsh, but probably right,” Russell said. “Looking at that on Lando, I think that was probably right too, but Max probably should have gotten a penalty for going off the track.”

Russell is director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and said the drivers had agreed to meet privately after their regular briefing.

“Between us, we’ll talk to the FIA ​​first and get their point of view,” Russell said. “And then we can judge. At the end of the day, stewards are doing the best job they can. They do their best and have a set of guidelines that they follow. We’ve talked about consistency in the past, the only way to have consistency is to have the same stewards every single race weekend.

“And right now they’re very experienced, but they’re here almost as volunteers,” he continued. “It’s not a professionally paid job and if you look at football as an example, although there are still disputes, the referee, they’re professionals and it’s their full-time job.”

He said financial fines imposed on drivers and teams should go towards funding permanent stewards.

“Collectively, from the drivers and the GPDA, we have asked about the financial penalties and where they are going. We asked for some transparency on that front,” Russell said. “It does seem a bit ridiculous that if a driver gets a 50 grand fine for crossing a racetrack, but if that 50 grand fine goes towards funding the best stewards in the world, maybe we won’t be so upset about it.”

The results in Texas helped Verstappen extend his five-point lead over Norris with five races remaining.

The Dutchman certainly has a commanding lead in his quest for a fourth straight title – he has a maximum of 26 points available to a driver in a non-sprint race weekend – and has 146 points available for the rest of the season.

So Norris is not completely out of the championship picture, although he has to beat Verstappen by an average of 11 points per race weekend. He could do it in one instance by winning a race and Verstappen finishing fourth – which would be a 13-point sweep for Norris.

Verstappen has seven wins this season, but none since Spain in June. Norris has three wins, including two races previously in Singapore.

The earliest title Verstappen can mathematically win is in Brazil next weekend. The more likely scenario is that if Norris fails to close the gap in Mexico and Brazil, Verstappen could wrap up the title in Las Vegas on November 24.

For Norris to dethrone Verstappen, he will need the title fight to go to December’s Abu Dhabi finale.

Norris said he needs to make some changes to his driving style but doesn’t feel he needs to be more aggressive against the driver he considers “probably the best in the world”.

“Should I make some changes? Yes. And adapt a little bit more. But is everything I’m doing wrong? Also no,” Norris said. “Max is probably the best in the world at what he does. When I’m up against the best in the world, it won’t be easy to do that.

“He’s been competing in this position longer than I have. I’m definitely not doing a perfect job, but I’m not doing a bad job either.”