FIA stewards have decided to penalize Lando Norris with a five-second penalty after a controversial maneuver on lap 52 of the United States Grand Prix against Max Verstappen.

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

Norris vs Verstappen: a full breakdown

A brief warning: despite all the data that can be analyzed 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 black and white, but all have many shades of gray due to the nature of the regulations and the nature of the racing world in general.

But these gray areas must be understood to be able to draw conclusions and that is the subject of this article.

To begin, let’s put the racing situation before the incident into context. Max Verstappen suffered a big undercut from Carlos Sainz on lap 22 and lost P2 which he had managed to protect at the start. The Dutch driver, despite four laps on newer tires than Sainz, was unable to get close to Ferrari’s pace during the second stint.

Norris had started the race managing the tires 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 pulled off a six-lap tire delta on 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 tire and the faster pace of the MCL38 on the hard tire to close the gap to Verstappen. On lap 47 the melee began, but it wasn’t until lap 52 that Norris really had the chance to clearly overtake the Red Bull driver.

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Now, before we get to the heart of the matter, let’s define some important terms to understand the FIA ​​sanction. What is the vertex of a corner? What does the FIA ​​understand and what does the FIA ​​say about the word “overtaking”? How can and should we go beyond?

According to the manager Formula 1 website, the apex is “the innermost point of the driving line crossing a bend.” Everything is clear here. However, there is no precise definition of what an overrun is. In fact, the FIA ​​in its regulations always speaks of “overtaking car” or “overtaking driver” when it comes to establishing the legal parameters of an overtaking maneuver. In other words, this is one of those gray areas in the rules.

Therefore, as my colleague Thomas Maher explained in another article, the FIA ​​considered that Verstappen was the “defending car” in this situation and that by beating Norris at the top he had the right to maintain his track position and not to be overtaken outside the limits of the track as Norris did as an “attacking driver”.

It is for this reason, for example, that George Russell was penalized five seconds against Valtteri Bottas for a similar maneuver in the same corner at the start 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 Finnish driver off the track.

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

“For an overtaken car to be obliged to give sufficient space to an overtaking car, the overtaking car must have a significant part of the car next to the overtaken car and the overtaking maneuver must be carried out in a safe manner and controlled, while allowing the car to remain clearly within the limits of the track.

“When considering what constitutes a ‘significant part’, for overtaking on the outside of a corner, among the various factors which will be considered by the stewards when exercising their discretion, the stewards Sportsmen will consider whether the overtaking car is ahead of the overtaking car from the apex of the corner. The overtaken car must be able to take the corner while remaining within the limits of the track.

Now… the 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 clearly talks about overtaking in a straight line, that is, according to the guidelines of the driving standards we can only differentiate between overtaking at the inside and outside, always applied to overtaking in a turn.

This is where the gray 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 look at the live footage and telemetry, we enter a new dilemma that the FIA ​​should have analyzed 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 a few meters before turn 12 and therefore, in my opinion, Verstappen should be considered the attacking driver at turn 12. In fact, this is what the telemetry shows. The FIA ​​took a different view.

Verstappen obviously braked later than Norris in order to be in the lead at the top and thus make the stewards believe that he had never lost the position and in this case, “make” Norris the attacking driver.

But wouldn’t it make more sense that if Norris were truly the “attacking driver”, he would have to extend his braking to attempt to overtake on the outside racing line – where he himself entered after completing his overtaking maneuver? overtaking on the straight while Verstappen covered the inside – rather than taking his foot off the accelerator and braking well before 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 get through the corner within track limits, but he couldn’t because he was being pushed further, the McLaren driver is clearly before Verstappen passed him in the final meters of the straight and should therefore be considered the ‘defending driver’ from that point on.

And it’s actually Max who has to take a more aggressive approach into turn 12 in order to “recover” the position on the inside line. Verstappen takes his foot off the accelerator 30 meters later than Norris before reaching the apex of Turn 12 to put himself in front at this key point and brakes around 35 meters after Norris.

Ultimately, the FIA ​​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 as Norris overtakes Verstappen on the straight between T11 and T12, exceeding the one car length margin by just a few centimeters before closing the DRS – indicating that he had done before reaching T12. braking zone in T12 – and therefore, the roles chosen to make the decision to penalize a driver are incorrect and the maneuver should have been resolved without a time penalty.

The fact that Verstappen is ahead at the top is because he delays his braking to do just that and, therefore, forces Norris to run wide, causing him to exceed the track limits as he had not then nowhere to go. An incredibly smart move from the Dutchman who pulled off yet another racing miracle by holding off a faster car for over 10 laps behind him.

If we return to the FIA ​​F1 Driving Standards guidelines, there is one final statement that Verstappen did not comply with as he delayed his braking to try and stay ahead of Norris at the apex of Turn 12.

“The overtaken car must be able to take the corner while remaining within the limits of the track.”

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

As stated in the Stewards’ official decision document: “Car 4 had little alternative but to leave the track due to the proximity of car 1 which had also left the track.”

In short, the decision to penalize a driver is made based on the FIA ​​F1 driving standards guidelines. And in the official decision document, these same guidelines on driving standards are contradicted because the last point referring to the behavior of the “overtaken car” is not respected.

This is not the first time that Verstappen has performed this type of maneuver. He knows very well what the regulations say in this regard and knows how to play his cards very well to always benefit from them.

But despite all 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 box graph below. And these are three additional points that Verstappen manages to take away from the McLaren driver plus two additional points from the Sprint race.

With only five rounds left in the season, the balance seems more and more in favor of Max for his fourth World Championship.

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