In the round-up: Lando Norris continues to dispute his Canadian Grand Prix penalty after the stewards denied McLaren’s request for a review.
In brief
Norris sticks by innocence over Canadian GP penalty
Norris remains convinced he did nothing wrong to earn a penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix for “unsportsmanlike driving” by lowering his pace behind the Safety Car. The team requested a review of the penalty at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, but the stewards rejected it as they deemed McLaren did not have enough new evidence.
“There was certain situations or things that we brought up to support the reasoning for why they should relook into it,” Norris explained. “Once I re-looked at everything that happened, there was even more reason for there not to be a penalty. I still stand by that everything I did was completely normal and correct and by the book and so on. What they suggest happened, there’s no rule for it.”
“There’s nothing which makes what I did unsportsmanlike. And at the same time, everyone knows that I’m not unsportsmanlike,” he added.
“They have now set a new precedent of what is allowed and what is not allowed and quite a strict one. But we’ll see. I’m sure if they are consistent, which sometimes they’re not, there will be a lot of penalties that are coming up over the next months if people don’t abide by the new regulation, the new rule.”
Alpine and Mercedes confirm new wings for Silverstone
Alpine and Mercedes will bring upgraded front wings for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Pierre Gasly said Alpine’s is “definitely going to bring us some performance, and hopefully Silverstone can be a track that suits us a bit better as Austria is always a bit particular. I’m looking forward to next weekend and see what we get out of it.”
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said their upgrade “will hopefully move us a bit further up the grid.”
Horner doubts move to lighter cars will happen
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the FIA is keen to address concerns about F1 cars getting heavier, as the current minimum weight of 798kg is the highest ever, but believes the 2026 power units regulations will make it more difficult.
“You heard recently the president’s comment about weight,” said Horner. “That’s not an easy thing to reduce when you look at the increase in [battery] cell size that we have, and so on, and the cooling that obviously goes with that.”
Mercedes’ technical director James Allison recently proposed the FIA reduced the minimum weight to encourage teams to find ways to shed kilos off their cars. Horner likes the idea, but doubts it will win support.
“It’s essentially what we did with the KERS in 2009, where we elected not to [run] it, to take the weight advantage,” Horner said in response to Allison’s idea. “It gives it more of an engineering play on things. It’s an interesting proposal. I doubt it would get, unfortunately, the support it needs.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to John H, Mitz1111, Sebsronnie, Elliot Horwood and Isaac Mwale!
