Norris frustrated to have seen Sainz regain his starting position in Monaco after the red flag

Carlos Sainz initially punctured after a collision with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, and his car stopped, seemingly out of the race at the Casino corner. But the accident involving Sergio Perez and the two Haas cars caused a red flag moments later, giving Sainz a second chance.

According to the F1 sporting regulations, the restart order « will be taken from the last point where it was possible to determine the position of all cars. All these cars will then be allowed to resume the sprint session or the race. »

As most cars had passed the first timing sector heading downhill towards Mirabeau before the red flag was displayed, Guanyu Zhou’s delayed Sauber had not. As a result, the FIA determined that the order on the safety car’s second row should be used for the second start attempt. This therefore allowed Carlos Sainz Jr. to be promoted from his starting position at the back of the grid to his original third-place position on the starting grid. He would eventually convert this position into a third-place finish on the podium during the race.

For Norris, who was running in third position before the red flag was waved, seeing Sainz take back his place was unfair. “I don’t think it’s the fairest thing, but I’m sure there have been moments in the past where maybe I got lucky with that and they were able to fix the car a bit or something like that,” he said. “When you think about it directly, it’s frustrating and unfair that just because someone makes a mistake and because of a certain number of cars or whatever the rule, didn’t cross the line before the red flag and blah blah blah, they can undo that mistake and get a free stop. It’s unfair.”

A red flag benefits Piastri.

The boss of McLaren, Andrea Stella, was more measured, accepting that the rules had been correctly applied, but he acknowledged how lucky Sainz had been. “In terms of how the restart order was determined, I believe that what the FIA did was the best course of action,” he said after the race. “It is also in line with precedent, where you use the second safety car line when sector times are not available. I do not think using mini sectors is a good way to do this.”

« Obviously, the key point that saved Carlos was that Zhou had not crossed the sector time when the race was suspended. Lucky Carlos. I think he was lucky today and also with the lenient approach of the stewards, as the collision at turn one obviously caused significant damage to Oscar’s car. »

« As I said, Carlos was lucky, it allowed him to get on the podium. We are happy for him, but I think that with yesterday’s obstruction, we are still a little perplexed about the difference between yesterday and Imola [when Piastri was penalized for obstruction]. »

Although Norris was unhappy with how things unfolded to allow Sainz to pass him again, the red flag was actually good news for his teammate Piastri, who had sustained damage in his clash with the Ferrari driver. After the race, Stella revealed that parts had been broken on Piastri’s car, which would have hampered him by about half a second per lap.

« As soon as the collision occurred, we observed a loss of 20 points of downforce, which here in Monaco equates to approximately half a second,” he said. « But thanks to the red flag, we were able to make repairs to the floor because the side wing of the floor was broken. We repaired it, we didn’t fully fix it, and we changed the pontoon which was also broken. So in total, the deficit was about 10 points for the entire race, which is about two tenths, maybe 0.25 seconds. »

« This obviously made us a little more nervous about the possibility of keeping the tires in good condition, as the car was slightly damaged. But Oscar managed to do it and in the end, the damage did not affect the final result. »