Lando Norris admits that he feels the FIA were "a bit stupid" with some of their rulings in regards to track limits at the Austrian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver was amongst those to be punished for the offence, having been handed a five-second time penalty during Sunday's race. There were a total of 43 lap times deleted across the field in the Grand Prix. Whilst Norris – who eventually finished the race in P7 – could understand some of the decisions made, there were others that he was less in agreement with. "It’s the same for everyone, if I think of it that way," Norris told media, including RacingNews365.com . "The annoying one is, the last two corners I completely understand. If you run wide there, it's obviously so difficult to judge at the speeds we are doing, but if you run wide there, you pretty much gain an advantage. "Whereas I got my penalty in Turn 1, [where I] just locked up the front tyre, hit the sausage [kerb] and lost a second going up the hill. I got track limits for that. "I [had] been punished enough because I lost one second. It's a bit stupid for some of them, but it's life and it's the same for everyone. "We wanted consistency and so on, [but] it's just frustrating when you're in the car."
Norris: Turn 6 ruling a "silly" one
The area of the track that Norris was most concerned about was Turn 6, where he felt that the gravel beyond the secondary kerb should be the limit. "The car is two metres wide," the Briton explained. "From the white line to the gravel, you've got two metres and five centimetres, so if you use all the track you get punished if you go to the gravel. That should be a limit. "But if you go those five centimetres to the gravel, it's track limits. That's just a silly one. "I think we've argued it. We've also said that we want it to be strict, since last year, and we want it to be the same every time and so on. "Us drivers always want something different, something better and so on, so we’ll see. It's just a difficult track [on which] to always judge the limits so finely."
Race result was "damage limitation"
Track limits transgressions aside, Norris was pleased that McLaren were still able to secure a double points finish, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo finishing the race in ninth. "I think obviously [we had] a little bit of luck on our side, with [Carlos] Sainz out and [Sergio] Perez out," he added. "With the pace, we still deserved to be where we were. [Fernando] Alonso was fast, and I think the Alpines were very fast, so to finish P7 and P9 was good points. "It's damage limitation from what's been a very difficult weekend, especially from my side, not so much the other side. "[This was due to] how compromised we were with set-up all weekend, and how far out we were with some things. "We know there was a decent amount more potential in the car this weekend, so hopefully we can bring that to the next one."
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