How Verstappen and Norris telemetry data raises fresh FIA stewarding questions

Pablo Hidalgo 22 Oct 2024 6:00 AM

Lando Norris racing Max Verstappen for position

The FIA stewards decided to penalise Lando Norris with a five-second penalty after a controversial manoeuvre on lap 52 of the US Grand Prix over Max Verstappen.

The McLaren driver lost the podium after starting the race from pole position. But was the penalty the right one, and is there a misconception behind the very nature of the decision? We have found out what the telemetry data and the regulations say about overtaking to find the answers.

Norris v Verstappen: A comprehensive breakdown

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A brief disclaimer: despite all the data that can be analysed and all the articles written in the regulations that can be studied, it is true that these types of decisions will always be subjective and can never be considered either black or white, but all have many shades of grey due to the nature of the regulations and the nature of the racing world in general.

But these grey areas need to be understood in order to draw conclusions and that is what this article is about.

To begin with, let’s put into context what the race situation was before the incident. Max Verstappen had suffered a big undercut from Carlos Sainz on lap 22 and lost the P2 that he had managed to protect at the start. The Dutch driver, despite having four lap fresher tyres than Sainz, could not get close to Ferrari’s pace during the second stint.

Norris had started the race managing tyres at the start of the first stint and pushed hard at the end to close the virtual gap to Verstappen. So much so, that McLaren managed a six-lap tyre delta over Verstappen and Norris came out after a late pit stop on lap 31 just over six seconds behind with 25 laps to go to catch him.

Norris quickly took advantage of the delta tyre and the faster pace of the MCL38 on the hard tyre to close the gap on Verstappen. On lap 47 the melee began, but it wasn’t until lap 52 that Norris really had a chance to clearly overtake the Red Bull driver.

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Now, before we get into it, let’s define some important terms to understand the FIA sanction. What is the apex of a corner? What does the FIA understand and what does the FIA say about the word ‘overtaking’? How can and should you overtake?

According to the official Formula 1 website, the apex is ‘the innermost point of the driving line taken through a corner’. It’s all clear here. However, there is no precise definition of what overtaking is. In fact, the FIA in its regulations always talks about ‘overtaking car’ or ‘overtaking driver’ when it comes to establishing the legal parameters of an overtaking manoeuvre. In other words, it is one of those grey areas in the rules.

Therefore, as my colleague Thomas Maher has explained in another article, the FIA considered that Verstappen was the ‘defending car’ in this situation and by being ahead of Norris at the apex, he had the right to keep the position on track and not be overtaken on the outside of the track limits as Norris did as an ‘attacking driver’.

It is for this reason, for example, that George Russell was penalised five seconds against Valtteri Bottas for a similar manoeuvre at the same corner in the early stages of the race. But in this case with the roles reversed, Russell was clearly the attacking driver as he was behind Bottas at the apex of turn 12 and forced the Finn driver off the track.

Thus, the penalty is correct and well applied following the FIA F1 Driving Standard Guidelines on overtaking on the outside (published in March 2022) and which will be updated from 2025.

‘In order for a car being overtaken to be required to give sufficient room to an overtaking car, the overtaking car needs to have a significant portion of the car alongside the car being overtaken and the overtaking manoeuvre must be done in a safe and controlled manner, while enabling the car to clearly remain within the limits of the track.’

‘When considering what is a ‘significant portion’, for an overtaking on the outside of a corner, among the various factors that will be looked at by the stewards when exercising their discretion, the stewards will consider if the overtaking car is ahead of the other car from the apex of the corner. The car being overtaken must be capable of making the corner while remaining within the limits of the track’.

Now… big question is: was Verstappen really the defending driver and Norris the attacking driver? And this is where the real controversy arises. Because there is no rule on paper that speaks clearly about overtaking on the straight, i.e. according to the Driving Standard Guidelines we can only differentiate between overtaking on the inside or outside, always applied to overtaking into a corner.

This is where the grey area of the rules lies, which makes the decision of who is the attacking or defending driver before reaching the braking zone of that corner even more subjective than it already is in the dynamic environment of a GP.

If we review the live footage and telemetry, we enter a new dilemma that the FIA should have analysed in more detail before applying the penalty to Norris. Before the controversial situation, was Norris already clearly ahead of Verstappen and therefore the defending driver at Turn 12?

Yes, he was. Norris had overtaken Verstappen metres before Turn 12 and therefore, in my opinion, Verstappen had to be considered the attacking driver at Turn 12. In fact, that is what the telemetry shows. The FIA took a different view.

Verstappen evidently braked later than Norris in order to be ahead at the apex and thus make the stewards believe that he had never lost the position and in that case, ‘turn’ Norris back into the attacking driver.

But wouldn’t it make more sense that if Norris really was the ‘attacking driver’ he would have to extend his braking to attempt the overtake on the outer racing line – where he himself committed after completing his overtaking manoeuvre on the straight as Verstappen covered the inside – rather than take his foot off the accelerator and brake well ahead of Verstappen?

Regardless of the difference in top speed before reaching Turn 12 due to the DRS effect, which obviously meant Norris had to brake earlier to make the corner within the track limits, but he couldn’t because he was pushed wide, the McLaren driver is clearly ahead of Verstappen having overtaken him in the final metres of the straight and should therefore be considered the ‘defending driver’ from that point onwards.

And it is in fact Max who has to take a more aggressive approach into Turn 12 in order to ‘recover’ the position on the inside line. Verstappen lifts his foot off the throttle 30 metres later than Norris before reaching the apex of Turn 12 to put himself ahead at this key point and brakes approximately 35 metres after Norris did so.

Ultimately, the FIA’s sanction is correct with the approach and context that the stewards decided as to who had the role of attacking or defending driver.

However, in my opinion, this approach was wrong because Norris completes an overtake on Verstappen on the straight between T11 and T12, exceeding the margin of a car length by just a few centimetres before closing the DRS – indicating he had done it before reaching the braking zone into T12 – and therefore, the roles chosen to make the decision to penalise a driver is wrong and the manoeuvre should have been settled without a time penalty.

The fact that Verstappen is ahead at the apex is because he delays his braking to do just that and in consequence, forces Norris to run wide making him to exceed the track limits as he then had nowhere to go. An incredibly smart move by the Dutchman who again pulled off a race miracle to hold off a car with more pace for more than 10 laps behind him.

If we go back to the FIA F1 Driving Standard Guidelines, there is a final statement that Verstappen did not comply with as he delayed his braking to try to stay ahead of Norris at the apex of Turn 12.

‘The car being overtaken must be capable of making the corner while remaining within the limits of the track”.

Norris clearly exceeded the track limits because he was forced by the Red Bull driver, but Verstappen as the “car being overtaken” also failed to stay inside the white line with all four wheels of his RB20. And this is in fact stated in the document issued with the stewards’ decision to penalise Norris with a five second time penalty:

As stated in the official stewards’ decision document: “Car 4 had little alternative other than to leave the track because of the proximity of Car 1 which had also left the track”.

In short, the decision to penalise a driver is made under the basis of those FIA F1 Driving Standard Guidelines. And in the official decision document, those same Driving Standard Guidelines are contradicted because the last point referring to how the “car being overtaken” must behave is not complied with.

This is not the first time Verstappen has pulled this kind of manoeuvre. He knows very well what the regulations say in this respect and knows how to play his cards very well to always take advantage of it.

But despite all of this controversy, the reality is that the Red Bull driver once again finished ahead of Norris after starting the race behind him and thus having a worse overall race pace, as we can confirm in the boxplot graphic below. And that’s another three extra points that Verstappen manages to take away from the McLaren driver plus an extra two points from the Sprint race.