Formula 1 commentator Martin Brundle claimed the series’ rules “dissuade overtaking” amid the Max Verstappen and Lando Norris United States Grand Prix duel.
Norris was charging up to Verstappen late in Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas and on Lap 52 the pair went wheel-to-wheel into Turn 12.
Verstappen held the inside line and ran wide to the run-off on the corner exit, carrying Norris with him and the McLaren driver launched ahead of his Red Bull rival and into third place.
The stewards took a dim view of Norris‘ manoeuvre, handing him a five-second penalty which demoted him behind Verstappen in the final race classification.
“As far as I’m concerned, the six-page Guidelines (therefore not regulations), which have been signed off by the FIA, the drivers’ association (GPDA), and the teams, are a blueprint to dissuade overtaking, especially around the outside,” Brundle said for Sky Sports F1.
“A driver can game the system by, for example, accelerating and running wide, thereby ensuring the overtaking driver on the inside is penalised for not allowing them a ‘fair and acceptable width’ from the apex to the exit of the corner.
“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.”
Brundle ponders inconsistent F1 penalties in US GP
Brundle pursued his pondering over F1 rules and how they’re applied further, highlighting potential inconsistencies surrounding two separate incidents at Turn 12.
George Russell was handed a five-second penalty for forcing Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas wide at the exit of Turn 12.
Verstappen and Norris ran wide at Turn 12 on Lap 52, with the former the aggressor in that action.
“Russell took an unreasonable penalty in Austin because the guidelines had to be applied,” said Brundle.
“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?”
By the letter of the law, both Norris and Russell’s penalties make sense, but the latter has argued whether permanent year-round stewards could make room for a “common sense” approach.
“I think we’d probably all want to see probably the same stewards all year long so that the drivers and the stewards can all be on the same page and that we can apply common sense when needed rather than having to really follow the letter of the law,” the Mercedes driver said.
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