Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso led complaints from a select group of Formula 1 drivers that the series has become “overregulated” when it comes to wheel-to-wheel racing.
The topic of penalising drivers following hard combat was thrown into debate after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris tangled at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The stewards handed Verstappen a 10-second penalty for causing the collision on Lap 64 of 71 at the Red Bull Ring following a move to the left toward Turn 3 that resulted in the Dutchman and Norris suffering punctures,
Still, despite cooling off on the Lap 64 incident, Norris told media including Motorsport Week during Thursday’s British GP press conference at Silverstone that he wanted the FIA to look into policing movement under braking, a complaint he levied at Verstappen’s driving throughout the Austrian contest.
“I think avoiding an incident from moving under braking is probably the biggest part of it,” Norris said.
“There could very easily be an incident that comes from such a thing, and I think that’s the only thing we have to be very careful of is something that could happen. Yeah, so that’s just something for the future and something that the stewards FIA need to be aware of. There will be a point when there is a limit, and I think that just needs to be defined in a slightly better way.”
Despite Norris’ calls for further clarification in the rulebook, several of his competitors would rather rules of engagement be relaxed, with Alonso chief amongst them.
“I think we never had so many rules as we have now we cannot overtake on the pit lane, we cannot go fast on the pit lane, we cannot go slow on track, we cannot do basically anything,” the Spaniard said.
“This is probably overregulated and drivers we see or we feel frustrated sometimes, teams as well, but we need to find a solution between all of us, we cannot leave the FIA alone on this.
“We need to propose something that is better than the current rule. And this is something that we need to do between all of us.”
Alonso’s Spanish compatriot Carlos Sainz took a similar stance on rules, saying there are far too many to consider when travelling at speed in the cockpit.
“If you guys read the rulebook about what you need to do if you overtake on the inside, what you need to do if you defend on the inside, what you need to do if you attack on the outside, what you need to do if you attack, defend from the outside,” Sainz began.
“It’s all a different set of regulations that is already super detailed and specific which I struggle to follow exactly when I’m in a car driving at 300 kph because you cannot think at that speed about all those rules. Let’s say I don’t want any further rules.”
And what of the alleged aggressor moving under braking in front of Norris, aka Verstappen?
Well, the Dutchman took an understated view on the current state of regulations at play in F1
“Look at already the rulebook from 10 years or 15 years ago to now, it just keeps on growing,” he said.
“That’s also the world that we live in.”
