Formula 1 Belgian GP

Norris conflicted by decision to award F1 points in Belgian GP

Lando Norris admits he is conflicted by the awarding of points after Formula 1's Belgian GP was run for the required two laps behind the safety car.

Adam Cooper

Edited: Sep 1, 2021, 9:57 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Norris disagrees with the principle of points being handed out with no proper racing laps completed, while acknowledging that the six earned by his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo for fourth place were useful in the ongoing battle with Ferrari.

Norris had a shot pole at Spa having been fastest in Q1 and Q2 on Saturday, before crashing in Q3.

That left him in 10th place, before a gearbox change penalty dropped him down to 15th. He gained one place in the final classification after Sergio Perez crashed on the way to the grid.

Asked by Motorsport.com about realising in retrospect how expensive the accident had been, Norris acknowledged his frustration.

"Yeah, of course," he said. "But I guess the hindsight of it is, it's only half points as well. And now a lot of the people I'm racing against as a driver didn't score any points, or Charles [Leclerc] got one or something.

"And even for us as a team, we still have outscored Ferrari, which is important. But we're here to race, we want to race. And yeah, I guess I'm disappointed I didn't get to try make up for yesterday's problem."

Read Also:

Norris said that points should only have been given out if there had been actual racing laps.

"I don't think any points should be awarded for today. How little we did today, I think [it's OK if it was] X amount of actual racing laps, like we go out and we race for X amount of the race, but to drive round behind the safety car and for people to get points?

"Maybe I'll be saying the opposite if I was first, on a good amount of points. Even though it's benefited us today, Daniel got a good amount of points comparing to Ferrari, I don't think it was a race deserving of points, because it wasn't a race at the end of the day."

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Asked if he thought the FIA had started the race purely to reach the stage of points being awarded, he said it was worth allowing the drivers to sample the conditions.

"Maybe they tried to get the points, [but] whatever their decision on trying to do that makes sense. I just don't believe points should be awarded and so on. I don't think they put us at risk, I think it was worth trying.

"When you do two laps, it's okay. I think it was the right decision, but is also a good decision not to go ahead."

He admitted that the accident and the lost opportunities had weighed on his mind.

"It plays over in my head a bit, because I was so annoyed.

"Not just that I'd crashed, but just that I'd given up on the opportunity to maybe score a pole position, and I feel quite convinced and confident that I could have at least been in the top two, and possibly ahead of Max [Verstappen].

"So that would have been a lovely result today, although I don't feel like a result today is really a result deserved of points. Still, being in that position would have been nice."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article F1 CEO Domenicali: No commercial pressure to start Belgian GP

Next article Ten things we learned from the F1 Belgian Grand Prix

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Why Cadillac F1 boss provoked fresh intrigue by dodging driver question

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

10 min

Why Cadillac F1 boss provoked fresh intrigue by dodging driver question

Lamborghini World Finals | PRO-PRO/AM Qualifying: Pole position for Lind, Bamber, Van der Drift and Marcelli

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo

World Finals - Monza 2026

26 min

Lamborghini World Finals | PRO-PRO/AM Qualifying: Pole position for Lind, Bamber, Van der Drift and Marcelli

Jorge Martin's endless ordeal since signing for Aprilia

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

41 min

Jorge Martin's endless ordeal since signing for Aprilia

Johann Zarco retires from Australian GP sprint: It was “dangerous” to continue

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

Johann Zarco retires from Australian GP sprint: It was “dangerous” to continue

Feature

Discover prime content

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Formula 1

United States GP

By Ronald Vording

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Formula 1

United States GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts