Lando Norris has apologised to his McLaren Formula 1 team for his costly penalty in the Qatar GP – while also insisting that he’s “not an idiot” and was unaware of the double yellow flag situation.
Norris was caught out when a mirror fell off Alex Albon’s Williams and lay on the track at the approach to the first corner.
Initially the yellows flashed on or off but they were on when leader Max Verstappen and Norris passed through.
The Red Bull driver slowed, and having seen that his rival had closed the gap he immediately reported him over the radio.
Norris subsequently received a 10 second stop-and-go penalty, which initially dropped him out of the points.
He recovered to 10th place while also picking up the fastest lap bonus.
“Disappointed of course,” he said when asked by AutoRacer.it for his thoughts on the penalty.
“I’ve let the team down. The team gave me a great car today, easily the quickest out there, and I fucked it up.
“I don’t know what I did wrong. I’m not an idiot, if there’s yellow flag, I know I need to slow down. That’s rule number one you learn in go-karts.
“But for some reason, I didn’t do that today, because I’ve not seen it, or I’ve 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, and I can only apologise for the rest of the year to the team.”
Asked if he thought the penalty was too hard Norris acknowledged that it was standard for a double waved yellows offence.
“No, it’s fair,” he said. “If I did what they said I did wrong, then good on them for giving the correct penalty.”
Told by AutoRacer.it that Verstappen had reported the offence he said: “Good on him, that’s what everyone does, I would do the same. Happy for him…”
Norris did at least retrieve two points that could prove crucial in the battle between McLaren and Ferrari come the final race.
“I didn’t give up until the end, and we were quick,” he said. “I did the best I could. But disappointed to have only got two points with the quickest car out there today.
He added: “The team gave me the best car out there today, and I’m very happy and thankful for them. I got a good start. I got past George. I thought George would be our biggest competitor today, and that wasn’t the case. Max was, and he did an incredible job.”
Norris suggested that Abu Dhabi won’t be as good for McLaren as Qatar.
“We go in the same as every weekend,” he said. “Wanting to win, wanting to be the best, wanting to be the fastest, and I just need to not be an idiot and do what I did today, clearly.
“I don’t think [the car] will be as good as today. So it’s a massive opportunity lost, and I’ve disappointed the whole team. The only thing I care about is my team.”
