During the race in Jeddah two weeks ago, the McLaren driver, Norris, moved his car slightly before the lights turned green, which usually means a jump start. Some other drivers, like George Russell, thought he jumped the start. But the race officials said Norris didn’t break any rules because his car’s tracker didn’t show anything wrong.
Norris himself was surprised that he didn’t get in trouble, even though he didn’t gain any advantage from it. He explained that he reacted to a nearby light, maybe from someone filming him, which made him move forward a bit.
He said, “I’ve never done this ever in my life. Since I did karting, I’ve never done it, so I don’t know what suddenly happened.”
When the race began, Norris thought he’d be told about a penalty, but nothing happened. He didn’t understand exactly how the rules worked for jump starts.
He said, “I don’t know the true extent of how the rules work for it – at what point you have to be stopped, or how the transponder trigger works and all of these things. I was a little bit surprised. Yeah, but I didn’t gain anything from it.”
Norris plans to ask the FIA for clarification on jump-start rules during the drivers’ briefing in Australia.
He also mentioned that another driver, Sergio Perez from Red Bull, also moved before the lights went out but didn’t get a penalty.
“In my eyes, you can easily see my one as potentially it should be a bigger penalty because I’m what people might think, pre-empting a start, which is normally the opposite, because I have terrible reactions,” Norris said.
He believes his mistake was accidental, while Perez’s move might have been on purpose. But he isn’t sure about the rules regarding such situations.
Also read: Norris Urges Driver Comfort Improvements in Next-Gen F1 Cars
