The Melbourne race was surrounded with controversy as it was filled with a lot of stoppages and re-starts. There were FOUR red flags and THREE standing starts. At the end, all the drivers finished in a line behind the safety car. A lot of people disagreed with this decision because some drivers had to restart on lap 56 which made them attempt riskier overtakes at Turn 1 which resulted in several crashes.
The FIA stewards were trying to figure out the right order for all the cars when they delayed the end of the race. This made Lando Norris mad because he thought it was unfair that people can get unlucky and have to wait longer. He said, “It’s tough and I hate it.”
Lando Norris from the McLaren MCL60 team thinks that it’s unfair when someone does a good job during a race only to get taken out on a restart. In his opinion, it’s better to start off rolling because you can still put in your best effort even if somebody messes up at the beginning. He doubts any changes will happen.
Norris helped McLaren get their first points of the season with a sixth place finish in Australia. This was based on the order of cars which were still running after crashes happened, and it ended up deciding the final results. Norris thought that having standing starts (where everyone stops and then begins racing when told) would have been more interesting to watch.
Horner said that stopping the final F1 Australian Grand Prix was the right thing to do. Russell disagreed and thought it was unnecessary. Norris added that if they just finished behind the safety car, it would have been simpler. He believes the race was stopped to make the show more exciting after someone made a mistake at Turn 1.
“When it comes to racing, we want it to be fair for everyone. That’s why it isn’t right when they stop the race just so they can put on a good show. We don’t need any big changes; maybe just a small adjustment in how things are done would help.”
