Will Verstappen or Norris receive a penalty before the season ends?
It’s little under two weeks before the United States Grand Prix from 18-20 October – the first of six races to decide the destiny of the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.
Andrew Benson, a BBC F1 correspondent, responds to your inquiries regarding the main subjects in the sport.
Max Verstappen’s engine change at Spa resulted in a grid penalty that we witnessed. In the remaining races, will Max or Lando Norris have to make the same sacrifices? – William
Teams tend to keep these kinds of matters to themselves until the very last minute, thus neither side has confirmed anything as of yet.
According to reports, Verstappen may need to switch engines before the season is up, which would result in a five-place grid penalty. However, that is not verified.
Norris has not been mentioned in any of the suggestions. He has not yet received a penalty. He has already utilized all four of his allotted engines, but this is true of every driver.
In Singapore, RB supported Red Bull. Could the other Mercedes-powered teams do the same for Lando Norris? Does Mercedes give a damn if a customer team comes out on top? – John
It was definitely contentious when Daniel Ricciardo of RB defeated Lando Norris of McLaren to win the fastest lap award in Singapore.
Although they stated they wanted Ricciardo to end his career on a good note if this ended up being his final race, which it was, RB has refused to acknowledge that this was the reason Ricciardo went all out.
Obviously, there was a degree of cynicism about that answer, and this was mentioned as a point of concern by McLaren at last week’s meeting of the F1 Commission.
The main takeaway from this is that Red Bull and RB have a very different relationship than Mercedes and McLaren.
Mercedes’ engine division is the sole owner of McLaren, whilst Red Bull and RB are owned by the same business. Apart from that, Red Bull and RB do not approach McLaren and Mercedes like competitors on the track; they do as such.
