'I F*cked It Up': Norris Apologizes To McLaren As He Agrees With 'Correct Penalty'
F1Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 12:00
Lando Norris suggested that the ten-second stop-and-go penalty he received at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix was correct.
McLaren Racing F1 driver Lando Norris, who gave away the sprint victory in Qatar to his teammate, started the 23rd round of the 2024 season at Lusail International Circuit from P3.
The 25-year-old gained one position on the opening lap, and from that point on, he closely followed the Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen.
If he had managed to overtake the four-time World Champion and win the race (with Charles Leclerc in P3, Oscar Piastri in P4, and Carlos Sainz in P7), McLaren would have sealed their Championship title in Qatar.
However, Norris made a critical mistake as he didn't spot and ignored double-waved yellow flags on the side of the main straight on lap 30.
A few laps later, the stewards looked at the incident and decided to give the McLaren driver a ten-second stop-and-go penalty.
Instead of fighting for the win and potentially winning the Championship, Norris ultimately finished in P10 after serving the penalty and Ferrari closed the Championship gap to McLaren to 21 points.
Speaking to the media after the Grand Prix, the 25-year-old driver apologized to his team as he took full blame for what happened.
"Disappointed, of course. I've let the team down. The team gave me a great car today, easily the quickest out there, and I f*cked it up."
I don’t know what I did wrong. You know, I’m not an idiot. If there’s a yellow flag, I know I need to slow down. That’s rule number one, you learn in go-karts.
"For some reason I didn't do that today because I've not seen it or missed it or something, so I have to take it on the chin."
"They think I've done something wrong; I must have done something wrong. I can only apologize for the rest of the year to the team."
While McLaren team principal Andrea Stella stated that the penalty was "out of proportion," Lando Norris said it was correct.
"If I did what they said I did wrong, then good on them for giving the correct penalty."
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