By: Charles Bradley, Global Editor in Chief Motorsport.com
If I was Lando Norris, I’d be a bit confused. Why was it OK for Pierre Gasly to muscle me out of the way at Paul Ricard, but when I did the same thing to Sergio Perez in Austria last weekend it was a five-second penalty?
Any racing move that’s attempted around the outside comes with more jeopardy attached compared to going down the inside of your opponent. Once on the inside, you can open the steering earlier on exit and simply hang them ‘out to dry’ on the outside. But if you blatantly hit them in doing this – in a wheel-to-wheel, side-by-side scenario – then that deserves a penalty in my mind; the grey area being if you ‘rub them’ – after all, rubbin’ is racin’.
In the Norris/Perez case – didn’t Sergio simply end up understeering wide into the gravel, without a rub nor a hit? Quite the opposite to when he nerfed Charles Leclerc (twice!) later in the race at exactly the same spot.
Penalties should fit the crime, and I don’t think Norris committed one. Even Christian Horner, Perez’s team boss, agreed! |
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