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Masi: Red Bull asked us to look at Norris/Perez clash

FIA Race Director Michael Masi revealed that one of the radio communications to him was from Red Bull, asking him to have a look at the Sergio Perez and Lando Norris clash.

FIA Race Director Michael Masi has revealed that Red Bull immediately raised concerns about the clash between Sergio Perez and McLaren's Lando Norris after the pair had an incident after the early Safety Car in Austria. With Perez ending up in the gravel after a squeeze from Norris exiting Turn 4, the incident resulted in a five second time penalty for the McLaren driver. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that he believed it was a racing incident, but Masi explained that his team had been immediately in contact with Race Control. "One that came on immediately was Red Bull, asking for the incident with Lando [Norris] and Sergio [Perez] to be looked at," Masi told select members of the media, including RacingNews365. "And then, in both circumstances, Ferrari asking for the incident between Charles [Leclerc] and Sergio [Perez] to be looked at. There might have been a couple of others but, outside of that, I didn't have anyone questioning anything that went up under investigation." With Norris aggrieved by the penalty he received, particularly in light of him being given another two penalty points to take him to a total of ten, Masi denied that the penalty point system is too harsh in terms of drivers accruing points for minor transgressions. "It's a penalty point system that exists. So it's been there all the way through, no different to those driving on the road in a lot of countries that have the maximum number of points that they have to abide by," he said. "And they have to adjust driving style and so forth accordingly. So, no, I don't think they're harsh. That was discussed late last year. And it's funny because it affects different drivers in different teams in different ways. "The consensus was at the end of last year from involving everyone, teams, the FIA and F1, that there shouldn't be a change for this year. And it's not something that we would ever change mid-year. So that's the penalty scale is something that the teams all agree upon, and actually have input into at the start of the year. That is what the stewards use."

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