Austrian Grand Prix 2023: McLaren secure Norris safety car penalty review
- Published
The Austrian Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport website
McLaren have exercised their right to review over a five-second penalty given to Lando Norris during the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Briton was penalised for slowing down other cars while trying to build a gap to team-mate Oscar Piastri so both could pit during a safety car.
The penalty dropped him from ninth place to 13th and out of the points.
The hearing will be held at 08:30 GMT at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, 2 July.
To succeed, a team has to first prove it has new evidence that was not considered by stewards at the time.
If officials accept that there is new evidence, then the case is looked at again to assess whether the penalty was correct.
McLaren said : "In Canada, we were surprised by the penalty and uncertain as to the rationale behind the decision. We spoke to the stewards immediately after the race to help understand the reasoning for the penalty.
"The FIA's regulatory framework has tools and processes which allow them and the sport to deal with the operational complexity of F1, especially for decisions which need to be made during the race.
"The 'right of review' is one of those processes which showcases the strength of the institution in allowing decisions to be reviewed, should that be in the best interest of the sport and this is something McLaren fully embraces and supports.
"Given this provision, the team took the initial explanation onboard and decided to review the case in a calm and considered manner, performing comprehensive due diligence, which included looking at the precedents.
"After this careful and extensive review, we believe enough evidence exists to a submit a 'right to review' to the FIA, which we have done so."
The decision to accuse Norris of unsportsmanlike conduct for such an incident was a new approach to a common occurrence in F1 when there is a safety car.
Norris believes he was unfairly singled out.
"There are clear examples of people doing what they think I did purposely and there were no penalties," he said.
"Every time there is a virtual safety car, people slow down and then they kind of speed up again. That's all I did and I got a penalty for it."
The original stewards' verdict found Norris guilty of breaching an article of the international sporting code which refers to "any infringement of the principles of fairness in competition, behaviour in an unsportsmanlike manner or attempt to influence the results of a competition, in a way that is contrary to sporting ethics".
McLaren conducted a so-called "double-stack" pit stop, when a team pits both cars at the same time during a safety car period.
If the second driver in such circumstances has to wait directly behind his team-mate, he is likely to lose positions to other drivers who were running behind him on track at the time and who pit without having to wait behind their team-mate.
The stewards said Norris had "slowed to allow a gap to form between his team-mate and him. In doing so he delayed the cars behind. There was a significant difference in speed between (Norris) and (Piastri) between Turns 10 and 13 (approximately 50 km/h)."
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