McLaren has announced that it has an agreement with Mercedes to hire a replacement driver, likely Stoffel Vandoorne, in case Lando Norris is banned from a race at some point this season. Norris is said to have thrown Red Bull’s Sergio Perez the last time at the Red Bull Ring at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Brit was given a five-second time penalty and two penalty points, which increased him to 10.
As points are counted over a rolling 12 month period, Norris’ UK Grand Prix count will drop to eight, with two points expiring before the Silverstone race.
But Norris will stay on eight until mid-November, putting McLaren at risk of being without his form driver for a race.
The 21-year-old was brilliant with three podium places this season, finishing fourth in the drivers’ championship after nine events.
However, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl says an agreement has been reached with Mercedes that Vandoorne will likely return to the team temporarily.
The Belgian drives for Mercedes in Formula E, but previously drove full-time for McLaren for two seasons in 2017 and 2018, collecting 25 points when the Woking team was much slower than it is now.
“It’s not comforting. There is a fundamental risk, “Seidl admitted to RTL, that Norris may be charged with a ban for a race, and insisted that the sport” should fundamentally consider whether this point system should not be reconsidered. “
He also said: “It cannot be in the spirit of Formula 1 that a driver has to suspend a race for an incident that we saw in Spielberg.”
But Seidl confirms whether McLaren will survive the worst-case scenario: “We have an agreement with Mercedes regarding the replacement driver.”
Vandoorne was the “first choice” and not Nyck de Vries, the Dutchman who also drives for Mercedes in Formula E and was in the McLaren Young Driver program from 2010 to 2019, he added.
Norris has since questioned the Formula 1 penalty point system, insisting that only “dangerous” driving should be punished.
He said, “Why should I earn penalty points today if someone goes into the gravel trap? Yes, nothing I’ve done is dangerous.
“Like my approach to the Baku incident with the red flag and not boxing when I should have.
“I didn’t put anyone in danger, on the contrary, and I made everything safe. Why should I earn penalty points for that?”
However, FIA Race Director Michael Masi replied, “To be fair, there is a penalty point system, it has been there all along, no different from those who drive on the road in countries that have a maximum number of points that they adhere to have to.” and they have to adapt their driving style accordingly.
“So, no, I don’t think they’re tough. It was discussed late last year and it’s funny because it affects different drivers on different teams in different ways.
“And the consensus at the end of last year, which was everyone involved, the teams, the FIA, everyone, was that there shouldn’t be any change this year and that we would never change anything in the middle of the year.
“The teams all agree on the penalty scale and actually have an influence at the beginning of the year. [and that] is what the stewards use. “
The post Mercedes has signed a McLaren deal with Lando Norris that threatens to ban F1 racing | F1 | Sports first appeared on monter-une-startup.
