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Lando Norris emphasised that it felt “frustrating and unfair” that Carlos Sainz was handed his original grid position back for the Monaco Grand Prix restart due to Formula 1’s red flag rules.
Sainz was at the back of the field with a puncture before the red flag (Clive Rose/Getty Images)Sainz picked up a puncture after a clash with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at Sainte Devote. The Spaniard’s SF-24 would not turn and seemed to be out of the race – stuck at Casino Square in sector one.
However, the scary pile-up, involving Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and the two Haas drivers brought out a red flag seconds after the incident occurred. The red flag gave Sainz a lifeline.
Formula 1’s sporting regulations states that th order of the restart “will be taken at the last point at which it was possible to determine the position of all cars. All such cars will then be permitted to resume the sprint session or race.”
The majority of the cars made it past the first timing sector going down towards Mirabeau before the red flag was brought out. However, Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu did not. Therefore, the FIA ordered that the order at safety car line two was the grid for the restart.
The decision allowed Sainz to start at his original grid slot in third. The Spaniard took full advantage, securing a podium finish in third at the chequered flag.
Norris not happy with ruling
As for Norris, the Briton was running in third before the red flag was brought out. However, due to the ruling, Sainz retook that third spot, which left the McLaren driver unhappy.
“I don’t think it’s the most fair thing, but I’m sure there’s been moments in the past where maybe I’ve been fortunate from it and they could have they fixed the car a little bit or something like that,” he said.
The 24-year-old vented his point, claiming that it was “frustrating and unfair” on him. It decided the race due to the highness in difficulty to overtake around the streets of Monte Carlo:
“When you think of it in just a blunt way, it is frustrating and unfair, that because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain amount of cars or whatever, whatever the rule is, didn’t cross the line before the red flag and blah, blah, that he gets to undo that mistake and gets a free pit stop. It’s unfair.”
Sainz managed to get away unscathed during the second restart (Image Credit: Mark Sutton/Sutton Images)Sainz was lucky
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was more measured with his response. The Italian believed the right decision was made. However, Sainz was still very lucky.
“In terms of the way in which the restart order was determined, I think what the FIA did was the best thing to do,” he said after the race.
“Also it is in agreement with the precedent, whereby you use the safety car line two when sector times are not available. I don’t think using the mini sectors is a good way of doing that.
“Obviously, the whole point that saved Carlos was that Zhou had not crossed the sector time at the time the race was suspended. Lucky Carlos.”
However, the red flag did benefit McLaren in a different way. Oscar Piastri suffered bad damage to his MCL38 after contact with Sainz.
The red flag allowed the Woking team to make as many repairs as possible to the Australian’s car. However, Stella revealed that Piastri still lost half a second per lap.
Stella said that Piastri’s car was “20 downforce points down”. However, the red flag allowed for repairs, repairing the floor. The team also changed the sidepod, which was broken also.
Without the red flag, Piastri may have ended up retiring from the race. Instead, the team managed to reducing the loss in downforce points to 10.
Feature Image Credit: Clive Rose via Getty Images
