F1: McLaren objection to Canadian GP penalty rejected

SPIELBERG, Austria –

Formula 1’s governing body has denied McLaren’s right to review for the time penalty Lando Norris received at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he dropped from ninth to 13th for deliberately slow driving.

Following a hearing on Sunday, held ahead of the Austrian GP and attended by two representatives of the McLaren team, the petition was rejected as no new relevant element of information was available to McLaren at the time.

Only a relevant new element could have led to a second hearing at a later date. Norris received a five-second penalty during the Montreal race for what the stewards called “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

After Mercedes driver George Russell activated a safety car by crashing into the wall and sending debris onto the track, McLaren told his drivers Oscar Piastri and Norris to get new tyres. Norris was subsequently accused by stewards of deliberately driving slowly behind the safety car to create enough space for McLaren to more easily change the tires on both cars.

The time penalty dropped Norris from ninth place and lost two points.

“We believe we have provided sufficient new, significant and relevant evidence to warrant a ‘right to review’,” McLaren said in a statement on Sunday. “We accept the decision of the stewards that this evidence did not meet their requirements. While it is not the outcome we had hoped for, we thank the stewards for their time and cooperation.”