The Qatar Grand Prix was characterised by penalties and question-raising moments in race direction, and one of these surrounded a wing mirror that fell off the Williams of Alex Albon. The mirror sat off the racing line on the main straight, and on lap 30 there were intermittent yellow flags in sector 1, covering this debris and hazard on track.
The regulations around yellow flags are laid out in the FIA’s International Sporting Code, Appendix H, Article 2.5.5, which outlines the following meaning for a double waved yellow flag: “Reduce your speed significantly, do not overtake, and be prepared to change direction or stop. There is a hazard wholly or partly blocking the track and/or marshals working on or beside the track.”
The stewards noted that Lando Norris infringed upon this regulation after assessing positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry and in-car video evidence. In their report they state that, “the driver of Car 4 [Norris] did not make any reduction in speed in the yellow sector.”
Assessing the telemetry from the yellow-affected lap, lap 30, from Norris and Verstappen reveals what the stewards noted. Though Verstappen lifted his throttle and had a significant reduction in speed (down to 259km/h), Norris did not and continued up to 324km/h.
Stewarding around yellow flag obedience has always been strict given the risk a breach could pose to the safety of the drivers, marshals or others on track. The stewards stated in their report, “compliance with the yellow flag rules is paramount for the safety of all parties and this requirement is clearly noted in the first item of the Race Director’s Event Notes at every event.”
Item 1 in the Qatar Event Notes that the stewards refer to reads, “any driver passing through a double waved yellow marshalling sector must reduce speed significantly and be prepared to change direction or stop. In order for the stewards to be satisfied that any such driver has complied with these requirements it must be clear that he has not attempted to set a meaningful lap time.”
Despite this, it was Andrea Stella’s, McLaren team principal, opinion that the severity of the penalty was “disproportionate” to the risk of what his driver did though he could not deny that it’s the “responsibility of the driver” to observe the yellow flags on track and react accordingly.
The stewards investigation into this incident arose, at least in part, after Max Verstappen asked his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to check whether Lando had lifted for the yellows after he was alerted to Lando having “a free shot at DRS”. GP replied to Max, “we’ll have a look and make sure he lifted”, as the gap between the two had reduced from 1.6s to 1.2s down the straight. When told that Max had reported him post-race, Lando said, “good, good on him. That’s what everyone does. I would do the same.”
The 10 second stop and go penalty is one of the most severe a driver can receive on track, requiring the driver to come into the pits, stop for 10 seconds in their pit box, and continue without any work being done to their car. The last time this penalty was served during a grand prix was in 2020 at the Italian Grand Prix where Lewis Hamilton and Antonio Giovinazzi drove through a closed pitlane. However, it was handed out more recently at the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix to Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin, who didn’t respect double waved yellow flags. In this case however, the penalty was converted to 30 seconds added to the race time of each driver. While it may appear harsh, Lando’s penalty seems to follow a precedent in regards to respecting double waved yellow flags.
It’s unlikely that other drivers in the top five at the time will receive retroactive time penalties, as were seen for Latifi and Mazepin, given that the telemetry indicates a reduction in speed and a lift of the throttle down the straight for Piastri, Leclerc and Sainz.
