pantherxxx wrote: ↑21 Oct 2024, 02:03
The stewards acknowledged that Norris didn't have much choice but to go off track due to Verstappen's position, which is why they reduced the penalty to 5 seconds instead of the usual 10. This shows that they took into account the specific circumstances of the incident, including the lack of space caused by Verstappen's position.
This isn't valid reasoning to me. It's fine that Norris had no alternative and did what he did. He also had some laps to return the position back which he didn't do. Fully penalize 10 seconds then if you believe he was in the wrong. Norris had 10-15 laps to pass Max and waited the last 5 laps to make moves, that's on him.
The stewards interpretation has to be fully eliminated by the rulebook because they cannot be trusted with it. Until FIA hires full time stewards this will remain a joke.
Personally I think Max lost the right to the corner when his car went off track as well, at that point you penalize both or you penalize neither, but I don't really care that much about this, I care more about the penalty administration, it should have been full 10 seconds.
What would you say if Lando managed to pull the 5s gap in front of Max? Would you then be ok with the penalty being just 5s because of that reasoning?
EDIT: Rewatched the race and SAI passed MAX on lap 1, he was ahead at the apex (not by much, half a wheel but that's still ahead), then Max passed back off track, this wasn't penalized, commentators mentioned how SAI needed to give position back because he left track.