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McLaren boss Andreas Seidl has admitted he has concerns regarding the consistency of penalties applied for incidents during Formula 1 grands prix.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have dominated headlines since last weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, when the latter appeared to force his championship rival off the road midway through the race.
That incident was noted but not investigated by officials at the time, leaving Mercedes to request a right of review in the days which followed.
At McLaren, the lack of penalty has caused some confusion, with team principal Seidl drawing parallels to a penalty dished out to Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix.
“Looking at the case and compared with Lando’s case, definitely we have some questions,” Seidl confessed.
“Lando got a penalty in Austria for something which from our point of view was debatable, because I think you can definitely argue with what happened that was Lando’s corner.
“Different to what we’ve seen in Brazil, and therefore we are obviously very interested in, necessarily the ruling from today, for the outcome of today’s investigation, because that’s again a different story or a different process.
“But more like understanding what Michael will brief to the drivers tonight in the drivers’ briefing on how they see things moving forward, because I think whatever the outcome is, you will definitely change the approach of the drivers to certain manoeuvres on track.”
In Norris’ case, the McLaren driver held the inside line while battling with Sergio Perez, but was deemed to have pushed the Mexican off track.
“What is inconsistent really the penalty for example that Lando got in Austria, and what we have seen last weekend,” Seidl said.
“I think it’s just important to clarify that every driver knows what he can do and what he can’t do.”
Officials met with representatives from Mercedes yesterday in Qatar in regards to its right to review.
The outcome of that is not yet known, having been deferred overnight.
