Sainz was able to reclaim his third place for the restart in Monaco
Lando Norris says that the red flag reprieve for Carlos Sainz after his first lap incident in Monaco was “frustrating and unfair”.
Norris was the main beneficiary when Sainz stopped at Casino Square with a puncture after contact with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, moving up from fourth to third.
The Spaniard resumed with only Zhou Guanyu – who had to thread his way through the aftermath of the Sergio Perez/Kevin Magnussen accident – behind him.
The red flag then came out, and after the timekeepers and FIA reviewed the situation it was decided to take the restart order with Sainz still in third place.
That demoted Norris to his original fourth, where he would stay for the duration of a race that saw most drivers running non-stop after taking a free tyre change at the red flag.
“It’s always fun to drive around here, but at the same time there’s just nothing you can do,” said Norris when asked by this writer about his race.
“Especially with the red flag at the beginning, I think that ruined any other opportunities that might have come our way with strategy and tyre saving and stuff like that.
“A bit of a shame, and even Carlos got quite lucky there was a red flag, because he was out, or last, and that was his own fault. But yeah, for him to get back was obviously annoying, because it put me back down to fourth.
“You win some and lose some in those situations. A red flag, sometimes it helps you out, sometimes it hurts you a bit. Today, we lost out from it. And Carlos was the lucky one.
“But otherwise just nothing you could do, because there were no pitstops, nothing, it was just driving slowly until the end.”
Norris accepted that nothing can be done about the red flag situation, given that the provision for a free tyre change has been in place for many years.
“That’s the rules,” he said. “It’s the same as Pierre’s win back when he won [at Monza in 2020]. He won because he got a free pitstop onto some different tyres. So, unless you want to say you’re taking that win away from him all of a sudden, it’s the same situation.
“I guess this one was more that he made a mistake himself, he ran into Oscar [Piastri], and gave himself a puncture.
“So just very lucky. I don’t think it’s the most fair thing, but I’m sure there’s been moments in the past when maybe I’ve been fortunate from it, and they fixed the car a little bit, or something like that.
“So when you think of it in just a blunt way, it is frustrating and unfair, because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain amount of cars or whatever the rule is didn’t cross the line before the red flag, and blah, blah, that he gets to undo that mistake, and gets a free pitstop.
“But this is not my job. I just drive cars. I don’t like doing all of these rules, things like that’s not what I’m here for.”
During the race Max Verstappen called the race boring and wished he had brought his pillow. Norris agreed that it was not an exciting event from where he was sitting.
“To be honest, the red flag made everything more simple and less action-packed than it ever would have been,” he said. “I think there would have been at least some kind of [action] at the pitstops, and see what things might happen then, and at least you’re judging tyre wear and all of these things to that point.
“But the fact we lost the only opportunity in a Monaco race that something might happen, then it kind of throws any fun out the window, or any action out of the windows. You’re still mentally driving hard, and you’re still doing everything you can to save the tyres here, and do this and that, and be close when opportunities arise.
“Max is always just very honest in his opinions of things! But it’s clear, and I can happily say it’s not the most exciting race and you’re just kind of driving around in no-man’s land doing nothing.
“You don’t feel like there’s a lot of things to target, or aim for on a day like today. But it’s also how it’s always been.”
Adam Cooper F1 