MEXICO CITY (AP) — Amid an unexpectedly tight championship battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, their teams brought the fight to the Mexico City Grand Prix over an officiating dispute in last week's race.
McLaren lodged a complaint into the penalty Norris received last week at the United States Grand Prix — a step in trying to get it overturned and put three-time reigning world champion Verstappen back within his reach.
The appeal was denied late Friday night.
Norris received a five-second penalty for passing Verstappen off the track late in the race in Austin, Texas. The two were racing for third at the time, and the penalty gave the final podium finish to Verstappen.
The change in position widened Verstappen's lead to 57 points headed into Sunday's race at Mexico City, and there are only five races remaining to decide the title.
Norris has maintained he did nothing wrong and, along with many other drivers, argued that Verstappen should have been penalized for his defensive driving.
“He did what he thought was right, and I did what I thought was right. I still disagree, and as a team, we disagree,” Norris said. “It is something I am sure we will discuss as it has been a big talking point since last weekend. A lot of other drivers didn’t agree with it, teams didn’t agree with it.”
The same stewards who levied the penalty at the USGP heard the appeal via video conference late Friday afternoon.
Verstappen argued in Mexico that F1 has become over-policed — he was ordered to serve community service for swearing in a news conference in Singapore last month — and joked he needs to keep a copy of the rulebook inside his car to keep up with all the regulations.
“I think we are getting to a stage where I always need the book in the car. If you look of course over the years, the book has grown quite a lot,” Verstappen said. ”It is definitely over-regulated."
But seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton seemed to side with Norris, claiming Verstappen has routinely received favorable treatment from the stewards.
“I mean, it’s always been a gray area. That’s why he’s got away with it for so long," Hamilton said. "They probably need to make some adjustments for sure. We do have inconsistencies weekend in, weekend out, obviously, depending on which stewards are there.
“And as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas," he continued. "We look at, like, other global sports, they have full-time refs for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.”
Permanent stewards
The situation is so tense between the drivers and the FIA, the regulatory body for F1, that George Russell said a driver-only meeting was planned for Friday evening.
Among the topics is the idea of hiring permanent stewards who regulate every grand prix on the F1 schedule, the new crackdown on cursing, and transparency over where monetary fines go when collected by the FIA.
Russell also received a five-second penalty in Texas for forcing Valtteri Bottas wide, which he isn't fighting.
“I thought my penalty was harsh, but probably correct,” Russell said. "Looking at Lando’s, I think that was probably correct as well, but Max should probably have got a penalty for running off the track.”
Russell is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and said the drivers had agreed to meet privately following their regularly scheduled briefing.
“Between us, we’ll talk with the FIA and understand their viewpoint first,” Russell said. “And then we can judge. At the end of the day, the stewards are doing the best job they can. They’re trying their hardest, and they do have a set of guidelines which they follow. We’ve spoken about consistency in the past, the only way you can have consistency is if you have the same stewards at every single race weekend.
“And at the moment, they are very experienced, but they are here as almost volunteers," he continued. “It is not a professionally paid job, and if you look at football as an example, even though there is still controversy, a referee, they are professionals and that is their full-time job.”
He said financial fines levied against drivers and teams should go to fund permanent stewards.
“Collectively, from the drivers and the GPDA, we have asked about the financial fines and where they are going. We have been asking for a bit of transparency on this front," Russell said. "It does seem a little bit ridiculous that if a driver gets a 50 grand fine for walking over a race track, but if that 50 grand fine is going towards financing the best stewards in the world, maybe we won’t be so upset about it.”
Norris' path
The results in Texas helped Verstappen increase his lead by five points over Norris with five races remaining.
The Dutchman certainly has a commanding lead in his push for a fourth consecutive title — there are a maximum of 26 points available to a driver on a non-Sprint race weekend — and there are 146 points available the remainder of the season.
So Norris isn't entirely out of the championship picture, even though he must beat Verstappen by an average of 11 points per race weekend. He could do it, in one example, by winning a race and Verstappen finishing fourth — which would be a 13-point swing for Norris.
Verstappen has seven wins this season, but none since Spain in June. Norris has three victories, including two races ago at Singapore.
The earliest the title could mathematically be won by Verstappen is in Brazil next weekend. A more likely scenario is that if Norris fails to close the gap in Mexico and Brazil, Verstappen could wrap up the title in Las Vegas on Nov. 24.
For Norris to dethrone Verstappen, he'd need the title fight to go to the December finale in Abu Dhabi.
Norris said he needs to make some changes to his driving style but doesn't think he should be more aggressive against the driver he considers “probably the best in the world.”
“Do I need to make some changes? Yes. And adapt a little bit more. But is everything I am doing wrong? Also no,” Norris said. “Max is probably the best in the world at what he does. When I am going up against the best in the world it is not going to be an easy thing to do.
“He has been racing in this position for longer than I have. I am definitely not doing a perfect job, but I’m not doing a bad job."
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press
