McLaren’s Lando Norris suffered a shock Q1 exit during the 2024 Azerbaijan GP weekend as he only managed the 17th fastest lap time. Despite registering purple sectors in the first two sectors, Norris could not improve during his final run after he was forced to abandon his lap due to yellow flags.
Lando Norris continued to express his anger at an “unfair” yellow flag which led to his shock early qualifying exit at the #AzerbaijanGP
“I know I got fourth [in the race] and that’s not bad, but it could have been better.”
Would Norris have won without his Q1 exit? pic.twitter.com/KCfr2kHDBh
— Crash.net – Formula 1 (@CRASH_NET_F1) September 16, 2024
Since the marshalls displayed yellow flags for a slow-moving car of Esteban Ocon, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that they made the wrong decision as only a white flag should be shown in such instances. However, F1 expert Peter Windsor was not happy with Stella’s assessment.
He said, “I think that’s completely uncalled for comment. Yeah, if he [marshall] wants to put out a yellow [flag], thinking the guy [Ocon] is going to stop – he’s doing it for safety reasons. Nothing wrong with it.
In the end, that incident cost Norris a golden opportunity to close the gap between himself and Max Verstappen even further. The 24-year-old was in contention for pole all throughout the weekend and could have gone on to challenge for the win as well.
Why was Stella not happy with the yellow flag?
Stella revealed that they have raised a query with the FIA regarding the marshall waiving the yellow flag during Norris’ qualifying lap. ESPN quoted the Italian as saying, “The yellow flag isn’t necessary when there’s just a slow car, it is not on a flying lap.”
Stella’s argument was that a simple white flag would have done the job of alerting the drivers about Ocon’s slow A524. In F1, the yellow flag is often waived to tell drivers that an incident has occurred on the track. This requires them to drop their pace significantly. Seeing the yellow flag, Norris then went on to abort his lap.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says his team queried the FIA on the yellow flag process that proved very costly for Lando Norris in Saturday’s qualifying in Baku. https://t.co/59U3isPYZ1
— F1i (@F1icom) September 15, 2024
On the other hand, a white flag is usually waived to inform the drivers that a slower car is up ahead of them. This, however, does not need the drivers to slow down or abort their lap.
