Formula 1’s driving guidelines will be reviewed following the uproar over the clash between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Austin two weeks ago. A change is expected before the end of the season.
Several drivers raised concerns over the stewards’ decision not to penalise Verstappen for leaving the track as he defended his position from Norris at turn 12 on lap 52. The stewards gave Norris a five-second time penalty as he also left the track while gaining a position from Verstappen.
However, as Norris and several of his rivals pointed out, the Red Bull driver was able to keep his position by deliberately braking so late he strayed beyond the track’s limits. By doing so, Verstappen took advantage of the racing guideline which states a driver overtaking on the outside does not have the right to the corner if the driver on the inside reaches the apex before them.
Verstappen attempted the same in Mexico last week when Norris went around the outside of him at turn four. This time, however, Norris reached the apex ahead, and even though Verstappen forced him off again, Norris was allowed to keep the position.
The Austin case remains a point of concern among drivers who believe the rules should be amended to prevent drivers from being able to defend their position on the inside of a corner and taking their rival with them. “In Austin, I don’t think anyone should have got a penalty,” said Norris. “We both kind of did things wrong.”
“I feel like I was made to do something wrong,” he explained. “The majority of drivers feel like that was the same thing. That’s why you’ve heard of some of the rule changes that might be coming and those types of things. It’s because there’s a common consensus that it wasn’t correct, what happened in the result that I had last weekend.”
Verstappen has practised the same tactics on a championship rival before: Lewis Hamilton pointed out the same happened at the scene of this weekend’s race during their 2021 title fight, when the Red Bull driver also avoided a penalty.
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Then as now, other drivers questioned why a move they thought illegal had been permitted. The drivers’ expectation that this seldom-seen type of defence might attract a penalty is partly a consequence of similar moves being penalised in the past. Such moves were once punished under a regulation which disappeared…
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