Martin Brundle has urged Formula 1 to make a rule change on the back of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen’s close call during the United States Grand Prix.
On Sunday, the race at the Circuit of the Americas came to a controversial end thanks to the battle between the three-time F1 world champion and McLaren star Norris.
The Brit caught up with Verstappen in the closing stages of the Grand Prix and was hoping to pass the Dutchman for third place.
On lap 52, Norris and Verstappen went wheel to wheel at Turn 12 and after both cars went off track, the McLaren driver returned in P3.
However, the incident was investigated by the stewards and Norris was controversially handed a five-second penalty.
On the back of the incident, former F1 driver and now Sky Sports pundit Brundle questioned the regulations.
He wrote: “I don’t know what happened to the ‘let them race’ approach from a while back which worked reasonably well. As far as I’m concerned, if you pass a car on the inside of a corner, while remaining under control and not locked up, and keeping within the track confines, then you have won the corner and can take the normal racing line through the exit, and it’s up to the driver who has been passed to yield, not to hit the throttle and inevitably run wide. George Russell took an unreasonable penalty for this in Austin because the guidelines had to be applied. As have others.
“If Russell was penalised for running Valtteri Bottas wide, shouldn’t Verstappen have been penalised for running Norris wide at the same corner? And here’s another question, given Norris had passed Verstappen down the outside before turn 12, when Verstappen sailed back up the inside, who was actually doing the overtaking at the corner apex, Verstappen or Norris?”
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Brundle added: “It’s even more complicated than that. Norris running wide was his fourth track limit indiscretion which means an automatic five-second penalty. It seems inconceivable to me that if a driver is forced wide that counts as a track limit strike, but I’m assured it does. But Norris wasn’t given an extra five-second track limits penalty because that would have been considered double jeopardy with his penalty for overtaking off-track, which he undoubtedly did. That wasn’t a universally agreed decision in race control.
“The standard penalty for passing off track is 10 seconds but mitigating circumstances can be applied. Like most refereeing decisions there are so many variables here and room for human opinion and interpretation, along with applying precedent and consistency. Every incident will be subtly different.
“Furthermore, where podium positions are concerned, especially close to the end of the race, there’s even more pressure to make a fast call as it’s not desirable to have drivers removed from the podium post-race as we’ve witnessed in Austin and Mexico before. Or indeed changing the result long after the fans have left the venue or switched off their devices.”