Lando Norris, McLaren, Miami International Autodrome, 2024

Norris blames “silly” errors for ninth on grid after quickest time in qualifying

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In the round-up: Lando Norris admitted he made multiple errors in his final flying lap in qualifying for today’s sprint race.

In brief

Norris disappointed by “silly” errors

McLaren’s Lando Norris branded his errors on his final push lap in SQ3 as “silly” as he fell from a pole contender to ninth on the grid for today’s sprint race.

“I just pushed too hard, simple as that,” said Norris, whose session-topping time from SQ2 stood as the quickest lap of qualifying.

“The car was feeling very good,” he told the official F1 channel. “It’s just silly to be honest. A couple of mistakes in turn one and just a big spiral from there. It’s a shame, because the team has done a good job, the upgrades are working, so I’m happy with everything. Just not with one thing.

“The pace was very good. Probably one of the quickest. So disappointing with today, but I’ll do my best tomorrow.”

Alonso’s penalties due to being ‘defensive’

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Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack believes Fernando Alonso’s recent penalties are a result of him having to race defensively as he often qualifies higher up the grid than the relative performance of his car.

Alonso was hit with a post-race penalty in Melbourne after stewards believed he had driven ‘potentially dangerously’ when defending from George Russell, before a second penalty in Shanghai for contact with Carlos Sainz Jnr in the sprint race.

“I think it comes as a result of being defensive,” Krack said. “You have to race really hard to defend against a quicker car. And I think it has been done really well so far because we came with more points than actually our race performance deserves. So I think that is a big achievement. But unfortunately, it means also at times that you are in the stewards’ room.”

F1 Academy gets Netflix series

F1 Academy have announced a documentary series about the championship, similar to Drive to Survive, in under production and will be broadcast on Netflix next year.

Produced by Hello Sunshine, the company founded by Hollywood actor Reese Witherspoon, the series will follow the current season as it progresses.

“We want to be the rocket fuel that drives female participation in our sport, both on and off the track,” said F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff. To have the F1 Academy docuseries launch globally with Netflix is not just a huge step forward for visibility for our mission, but also a resounding statement about the momentum and demand for women’s sport.”

Championship leader and Alpine academy driver Abbi Pulling set the pace in practice in Miami for the F1 Academy series races this weekend, exactly two tenths of a second quicker than Doriane Pin.

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Comment of the day

With news that the FIA have been approached about giving permission for 17-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Jere thinks it’s a fruitless endeavour…

It’s totally pointless to even ask for something the FIA most certainly won’t grant in any case, given how particularly strict they’re about the superlicence rules. People should know better than to expect certain things from them, especially after the rejection in Colton Herta’s case since no force majeure situation had affected his points-gaining ability and no provision criteria – or previous precedent, for that matter – even exist for the minimum age requirement under which a dispensation could be handed in the first place, so a waste of time to even bother.

The age limit came in for a reason. And as no justifiable reason exists for an exemption with this particular requirement, if it didn’t matter anymore, it should get dropped altogether or dispensations be granted to everyone who reaches the minimum points amount before turning 18, which other drivers in a similar situation would most certainly also start to ask for, to avoid double-standard treatment.

Ultimately, it’s totally pointless to ask or even think about this matter. A valid driver’s license is another requirement for a super license since 2016, meaning it would also get ignored as 18 is the minimum in most countries, including Italy.

This whole matter shouldn’t even have come up in the first place and as his readiness to compete in F1 from next year is already questionable, he most certainly wouldn’t be mentally ready to compete in F1 during this season and thus would only cause inconvenience for any team by holding them back excessively, probably even more than Nicholas Latifi in 2022. So this whole rush with him is totally pointless in the first place, as he has plenty of time to compete in F1 from 2026 onwards. Continuing in F2 until next the end of next year should be the only intention in any case.
Jere

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Jack Sargeant, Martin Stanley, Three4Three, Skodarap, Vickyy and F1_Barbie!

On this day in motorsport

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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7 comments on “Norris blames “silly” errors for ninth on grid after quickest time in qualifying”

  1. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    4th May 2024, 6:42

    I was prepared, but I still didn’t quite expect my rant to get chosen as the COTD.
    Btw, I didn’t type ”it’s” at the beginning, but I don’t mind about that addition, & the point still stands.

    1. Profile Photo

      Jere (@jerejj)
      4th May 2024, 9:45

      Edit: Fake news, after all, with someone just wanting to claim they’d asked for dispensation for clickbait purposes or whatever, so a good move by Toto to dismiss the speculation & make a stance that they aren’t planning to rush with him.

    2. Profile Photo

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      4th May 2024, 10:53

      So first simon criticizes a comment, then it makes comment of the day, says enough.

      1. Profile Photo

        Jere (@jerejj)
        4th May 2024, 12:26

        Ikr, weird.

  2. Profile Photo

    GT Racer (@gt-racer)
    4th May 2024, 15:15

    Seems the debate on altering the points system for 2025 has shifted from awarding points for the top 12 to them now looking at awarding points for everyone.

    1. Profile Photo

      pcxmac (@pcxmac)
      5th May 2024, 5:08

      there are still ways to classify who is in front of who based on what ever. This is only being done to help fans who have no idea whats going on understand why.

      1. S
        5th May 2024, 7:23

        And it makes the most sense to make that classification obvious to everyone at first glance.
        No need to go digging through individual race results to find out how they differ from the championship points table.

        Anyway, it’s a good opportunity to flatten out the points weighting, which serves primarily to give maximum positive reinforcement to the teams that are already in the best (financial) position.

        No doubt that opportunity will be wasted, again.

Comments are closed.