The stewards have fined Lando Norris and George Russell €5,000 (£4,200) each for leaving the grid when the aborted start signal was given.
The two front row starters were also given formal reprimands for the incident. However no action was taken against other drivers who joined them in pulling away too soon.RB pair Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who started third and fourth respectively, were also investigated, but cleared.
The incident occured after the race director aborted the original start. The decision to call off the start was taken after Lance Stroll spun at Subida do Lago, then drove into a gravel trap as he tried to recover and became beached.
After the start was aborted, Norris, on pole position, began to lead the field away. Several drivers immediately behind him on the grid followed. Eventually the rest of the drivers pulled away.
The stewards noted the signal to abort the start “was appropriately given, the light panel illuminated as prescribed, and the teams notified by the messaging system.” However in Norris’ case “the driver left the grid and proceeded on a lap that he assumed to be an extra formation lap.
“As the driver was on the front row of the grid this triggered following drivers to take similar action. At some point the Race Director, realising that for practical reasons all cars would now need to do an extra formation lap, gave an instruction to the teams for all cars to proceed and return to the grid to follow the correct aborted start procedure.”
The stewards deemed that Norris and Russell “precipitated the action of the drivers on the grid directly behind” them. In the cases of Lawson and Tsunoda they ruled “although the driver breached the regulation this was influenced by the driver ahead of him and as such he was not predominately responsible for the breach.”
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2024 Brazilian Grand Prix
- “I didn’t really want to come back” – Hamilton explains cryptic Brazil radio message
- Ocon’s role in Gasly’s Q2 exit was almost another ‘flare-up’ at Alpine – Oakes
- Interlagos must improve “very bad” new track surface for 2025, say F1 drivers
- “That’s how we silence them”: Verstappen’s stunning Brazil win from start to finish
- Verstappen now has as many wins as F1’s first six world champions combined
Mayrton
3rd November 2024, 16:59
Why post race this time around?
Ludewig
3rd November 2024, 17:14
Probably because the stewards have their hands full during this chaotic race.
Dex
4th November 2024, 1:32
They weren’t when they penalized Piastri for something that happened like hours later.
DaveW (@dmw)
3rd November 2024, 18:44
I’m guessing stewards want to hear what drivers were told to do by their teams or if they just followed Lando. So penalties can be calibrated and consistent.
Grapmg
3rd November 2024, 21:00
I don’t like all these penalties but if they hand them out so easy to all the other drivers not only this race but whole year it really surprised me they are waiting till after the race. Hulkenberg was even dsq immediately because the stewards pushed his car. But driving through a red light needs to wait to discuss this after the race? Just stop all the penalties if your not consistent.
UnitedKingdomRacing (@unitedkingdomracing)
4th November 2024, 4:30
There was no red light. It was flashing orange.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 7:02
Wow, just wow despite not being unexpected. FIA really enforces to the standings in the championship. You go hard on the leader and soft on the one challenging the leader.
I bet there won’t be 25 articles on this site about this infringement Now imagine for a second it had been Max on that front row doing it.. certainly 25 articles on this site on how he breaks the rules ALL the time.
Osnola
4th November 2024, 9:09
And ignoring the yellow lights is the most easy penalty to give. 10 seconds.
So a special rule set for lando and george..
Ideals (@ideals)
3rd November 2024, 17:09
It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of it. Essentially Norris started a lap under red flag conditions, surely they can’t just go with a reprimand or just a fine for this. The other’s followed him, sure, but when you jump a start because the car in front of you jumps the start, you still get a penalty all the same.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:25
Guess what…?
CarWars (@maxv)
3rd November 2024, 18:24
They will probably rule everyone broke the rule and give everybody 30s.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd November 2024, 18:50
Technically, they did all break the rules. Even those who held back did eventually do an extra formation lap, and I’m fairly certain they weren’t instructed to do so by the officials.
Ludewig
3rd November 2024, 18:59
Max and a few others waited a long time, so I presume that they only moved once race control told the teams that they were released.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd November 2024, 19:26
That’s possible, but I’d have expected to hear confirmation of this from either the officials or one of the other teams if it was the case.
Grapmg
3rd November 2024, 21:03
Only a specific number of drivers are under investigation.
MacLeod (@macleod)
4th November 2024, 7:42
Those waited untill the green was giving….
Kata
3rd November 2024, 19:33
Max was the only one, or one of the few, who knew the exact rules. He even shut off his car.
The fact that not only Lando started when he wasn’t allowed is no reason for giving a minor or no sanction. Otherwise every rule that hasn’t been enforced yet can go in the bin.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd November 2024, 22:50
I’m not suggesting that only a light penalty be applied, I’m suggesting that any driver who went through without a green light or official notification from race control that they should proceed should be punished equally. They all broke the same rule. It would be grossly unfair to only punish 4 drivers when several more broke the same rule.
DaveW (@dmw)
3rd November 2024, 20:17
There wasn’t really a choice. They were blocking the track. And imagine if they somehow let the other cars weave through back to the front. We’re those cars now lapped?
Rob
3rd November 2024, 21:01
In the video Max stayed put – as stated above – once the cars infront had moved off their was large space ahead – Max could have moved but did not. He moved after he was told on the radio he had done the correct thing and that they were given the go ahead to let him move.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd November 2024, 22:53
Then that would be a call for race control to make, and officially tell them how to proceed. I’ve yet to hear anyone say that race control told them to ignore the lights and perform another formation lap, which would technically mean they all broke the same rule.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 7:07
@drmouse According to the ruling, that instruction was given,
“At some point the Race Director, realising that for practical reasons all cars would now need to do an extra formation lap, gave an instruction to the teams for all cars to proceed and return to the grid to follow the correct aborted start procedure.”
drmouse (@drmouse)
4th November 2024, 9:08
Yep, I’ve seen that now. I think it’s doubtful that all other drivers waited until they were given that instruction, but given they only handed out a slap on the wrist it doesn’t really matter now.
Keith
3rd November 2024, 23:18
It’s pathetic the fines they give Norris up max, like they want a Brit to win the championship, it’s pathetic, the FIA are a jokee
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 7:06
@drmouse Any driver who waited until the command to do an extra formation lap was given (which was some of them, because it said so in the part of the ruling the article quoted) was within the regulations.
drmouse (@drmouse)
4th November 2024, 9:10
Yep, agreed.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
3rd November 2024, 18:33
They had obviously no idea what to do with them.
There are no precedences and apparently there’s no default penalty for that in the rule book. It’s gonna be fun to see what happens because it’s definitely worse than what Perez did last week.
Will only Norris get a penalty or will his be more severe because the others reacted to him.
Anyway, pretty unprofessional by the teams not to talk their drivers through the aborted start procedure.
Ronald (@mosquito)
3rd November 2024, 21:25
Driving through a red light out of the pits has been punished before, seems like a fair comparison.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 7:08
@roadrunner There are precedents, it’s considered a jump start and technically should have resulted in a 5-second penalty for those adjudged to be precipitating the situation (Norris and Russell). However, given the FIA was against the regulations to even attempt the start, I can’t really complain about its being lenient towards other drivers.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:28
Guess what? They all got away with it since it doesn’t contribute to the title fight to enforce the rules on this one.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
3rd November 2024, 18:41
I would guess they waited until after the race because they want to hear from the teams & drivers.
They probably also need to really dig into what penalty may be necessary since there is no precedent for this sort of thing and therefore likely no obvious penalty to give them.
All that said since it is such a clear breach of procedure I just think they should have given any car that went before they were told a drive-thru.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 7:09
@roger-ayles There is definitely precedent because it’s a mass jump start.
Craig
4th November 2024, 9:52
Technically it’s not a jump start as the actual start procedure hadn’t started. You could also argue, if you wanted to be pedantic, technically everyone did it as they all eventually pulled away.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:33
They postponed wishing the rest of the unfolding would distract from this topic. And then they would brush it away with some lenient fee rather than penalty.. and it worked. And the British press will happily look the other way as well, so basically there is no issue. Must be quite a relief for FIA. They almost had to penalise the runner up and we all know the golden rule: go hard on the leader and soft on the runner up.
FIA showed their ugly side once again. The VSC timing in Sprint, the penalty for Max, the Red Flag timing in Quali, being lenient to a start infringement (with safety consequences for drivers and people on track!!). All this on top of allowing a biased (as publicly stated by him in various press) countryman of the challenger as a steward. I can’t see a way they could have possibly done a worse job.
Paul
3rd November 2024, 20:18
It should rank or be considered similar to speeding under a VSC which going by Verstappen’s penalty earlier in the weekend is a 10sec penalty.
Osnola
4th November 2024, 9:13
Wrong. Those interpretations only count for max. When lando and george break rules its different…/s
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:36
Or to be more precise.. it only counts for the leader and not for the runner(s) up. Equalising the championship is the primary objective of Race Control enforcement. It is their primary briefing. You always slow down the one ahead, since if you don’t you might not have a job anymore in the future as the circus won’t attract paying customers.
Craig
4th November 2024, 9:53
Is this the new “in” conspiracy that seems to have been spun up by rules actually being applied to a certain driver?
Osnola
4th November 2024, 11:14
And not to others..indeed :)
You get the picture but not the conclusion.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 13:15
and it is hardly new (ref 2021).
BLS (@brightlampshade)
3rd November 2024, 21:55
It feels like this is taking an awfully long time to conclude. A massive penalty perhaps?
Also what about the Mercedes and changing tyre pressures? Or did I miss that resolving itself?
Craig
3rd November 2024, 22:30
the fact it’s taking so long makes me think part of the blame is on the stewards for potentially issuing the wrong instructions
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:36
They postponed wishing the rest of the unfolding would distract from this topic. And then they would brush it away with some lenient fee rather than penalty.. and it worked
Ohnoes
3rd November 2024, 22:22
Did this happen? Did anyone get official confirmation to go? Etc. nothing clear from the TV which suggests everyone from the drivers to the teams to the race director made a total mess of this to varying degrees. You have thought a direction should an would have been made before they stopped even?
I’d be curious to know what made those stopped eventually go. Did they panic and think they were wrong, or were they told to go?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 7:10
According to the quotation the article provided, yes the race director decided to do an extra formation lap:
“At some point the Race Director, realising that for practical reasons all cars would now need to do an extra formation lap, gave an instruction to the teams for all cars to proceed and return to the grid to follow the correct aborted start procedure.”
At it again
3rd November 2024, 22:28
If so perhaps they should all be disqualified, in which case does no one get points or would they get positions based on their qualifying? Perhaps they’re still working out how to fudge the result.
Ludewig
4th November 2024, 10:23
You are responding to someone who made a wrong claim, but in the theoretical case where all cars would be disqualified, they would of course all get zero points.
CarWars (@maxv)
4th November 2024, 1:08
What a joke of a penalty
AlexS
4th November 2024, 3:05
Precisely. It affected thee race, that lap, so should have been a race penalty too.
Patrick (@paeschli)
4th November 2024, 7:59
Reminder that Leclerc got fined 10K for swearing…
Greg
4th November 2024, 4:13
I think that it was better when drivers that made false starts where inmediatly send to the last position of the grid
norwaydoorbell
4th November 2024, 5:49
Well it us clear now that Norris and russell can do what ever they want and get away with it. Even joining the circuit unsafe. What a joke these Stewards.
BMW P85 V10
4th November 2024, 6:22
They should have gotten an in race penalty like a stop & go or similar.
It was a mess like this ending Jules Bianchi’s life.
You can’t let it go unpunished. A fine is no punishment.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 7:11
The mess was on the FIA’s side – it shouldn’t have been attempting the start at all, according to the settlement from that very accident.
Osnola
4th November 2024, 9:15
Nonsense. There were flashing yellow lights and a sign: start aborted.
Even the team instructed norris to shut down and stay put.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:39
Yet, they didn’t. It was just a fine. Non surprisingly. What a joke and biased organisation this is, I can’t believe they can look themselves in the mirror. Same goes for the British press conveniently not looking into this as it doesn’t suit their agenda. Who cares about the integrity of the sport. FIA doesn’t (being way to busy with fining people for swearing) so why would they?
Illusive (@illusive)
4th November 2024, 6:55
You cant make this up, just a reprimand for start infringement. FIA is a mess. This would have been atleast a 5 sec penalty if not 10 but these are only reserved for drivers of other nationality.
Grapmg
4th November 2024, 7:33
The Stewards asked them for their passports had a look at it and they where cleared.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:41
Hahaha, as true and funny (& painful) this might be, I do think there is an element that has nothing to do with passport but rather standing in the championship. The FIA golden rule: go hard on the leader and soft on the runner up.
S
4th November 2024, 8:24
Given that they drove off without authorisation on a neutralised circuit, they got off pretty lightly.
Would be justified to take some points off their licences, all things considered. This is as clear of a safety procedure breach as any.
Ludewig
4th November 2024, 9:47
A total joke. FIA showing again how much they care about safety.
They give 2 penalty points if a driver goes over a white line a bit, with zero danger to anyone, but if a driver enters a closed track, potentially putting other drivers or marshalls in lethal danger, then it’s a symbolic fine. I’m fine with no sporting penalty since there was no advantage gained, but why even have the penalty points system if it is not applied for cases like this?
Also, the ‘he did it too’-logic by the stewards is childish. Are the drivers professionals who have to know the rules or it is all fun and games until someone gets killed?
Ludewig
4th November 2024, 9:51
Actually, there potentially was a sporting benefit gained, as having one less racing lap would presumably benefit some teams, so it makes sense to have a sporting penalty as well, to prevent teams from gaming the system. Of course that wasn’t the plan here, but teams could intentionally do this in the future.
Illusive (@illusive)
4th November 2024, 10:34
This, FIA has messed up big time this weekend with everything. The stewards decisions have been baffling, not surprising as we know who it is.
amped
4th November 2024, 11:45
“potentially putting other drivers or marshalls in lethal danger, ”
This is very hyperbolic, they incorrectly set off on another formation lap, it wasn’t a racing lap.
This wasn’t a Bianchi situation where a car came through a yellow zone at full speed & out of control.
Ludewig
4th November 2024, 12:01
@amped
The drivers have no idea what the status of the track is. Race controls knew and they decided that it wasn’t safe enough to go.
This time the actual danger was not large, but next time there can be people on the track or in unsafe locations near it.
japioooo
4th November 2024, 10:29
This is a nice diversion for race control. It was clear as day that the race wasn’t going to start. Stroll was still in the gravel when Norris arrived on the grid. Aborting the start at that moment, or even before, was the way to go. This took way too much time and triggered the mistake. Still a mistake, but avoidable when race control did the obvious at the right moment.
Amped
4th November 2024, 11:37
If Norris was the only driver that set off while the rest sat thereas they were supposed to, I would imagine the outcome would have been different.
The fact that they all moved ultimately forced a force majeur situation.
Looks like they need to have a light meaning refresher in their next driver’s meeting.
japioooo
4th November 2024, 12:18
Everybody except the ones who waited should receive a penalty. The ones waiting got told by race control to go ahead eventually.
Don’t get race control in this case:
What should we do with the cars who did the safe and correct thing and are still correctly standing at their starting positions? Hmmm, because others made mistakes we also let them do the mistake and send them onto the track. Race control looked like amateurs this weekend.
CarWars (@maxv)
5th November 2024, 1:25
This is purely due to fuel typically. Send everyone around to equalize fuel burnt. They can’t take fuel out on the grid nor in the fast lane. Nor probably trust everyone takes out the right amount without weighing etc.
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
4th November 2024, 11:59
Definitely feels like Norris et al got off fairly lightly here. But I do think it highlights the limitations of a start procedure which is effectively only communicated to the drivers via light sequences which they have to memorise.
In a lot of racing series, including in the WEC, the race director has a direct comms line to the drivers so would be able to communicate verbally to all drivers that the start was aborted while the stricken car was cleared, and to remain in their grid slots.
I imagine the lenient punishment comes from the fact that it didn’t create a dangerous situation and there was no material impact on the race. In any event, they were always going to need to do another formation lap after the track was cleared, so there was no advantaged gained as there would be in a jump start.
Leo B
4th November 2024, 12:15
Why dont the stewards help by issuing a notice to all teams reminding them that they must remain on the grid?
anonymous coward
4th November 2024, 13:02
Because like all people involved in this sport (teams, drivers, journalists, etc) they are in for the money. They just create ambiguous rules to give ambiguous punishments. Stroll’s car was removed and we waited how much for the race to restart, 10 minutes? And if they knew they will redo everything again, formation laps and all, why yellows and not red lights.
After this weekend I really can’t understand how people can be so angry instead of laughing.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 13:24
I do think some vote of non confidence needs to be issued towards the FIA.
They were always meddling and interfering to some degree but having lived through 2021 and now again this period in 2024, being both seasons in which they really ridiculed and disqualified themselves.. this should not be without consequences. This organisation needs to be held accountable for their actions in which they purposely twist penalty interpretation to keep the championship fight alive. I know there are talks to set up a new category not governed by the FIA and I hope this will get more traction.
CarWars (@maxv)
4th November 2024, 15:20
you can go back to Senna and Prost era.. Jean-Marie Balestre. Guess which French driver was prioritized with a laughable DSQ for Senna in Japan. It would happen nowadays again it seems ;-) FIA is not a sporting regulatory agency, its a political jungle.
Lewish
5th November 2024, 11:04
They are throwing everything at Max, again, and are helping Lando (doesn’t he see that himself, calling Max lucky??)
just to keep the championship alive and keep people watching. Why can’t it be as in the old days. Lewis was right, this is being manipulated…