Lando Norris doesn't mind multiple F1 race directors 'as long as its consistency throughout the season'

Lando Norris says he doesn’t mind how many race directors F1 has, as long as their decision-making is consistent throughout the season. While he welcomed the FIA’s decision to revamp race control following the Abu Dhabi controversy, he says he isn’t entirely sure how the process will work.

Speaking to the media ahead of the Bahrain GP weekend, the McLaren driver said:

“Not too sure how it’s gonna work just yet. Of course, if there’s consistency as that’s the main thing we want as drivers, then it doesn’t really matter how many people there are. As long as [race direction] is consistent throughout the season then we’ll be happy.”

In the aftermath of last season’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the FIA announced a full restructure of the F1 race control to address some of the long-standing issues. This included the removal of former permanent F1 race director Michael Masi after just two years and an overhaul of the race direction team.

Going forward, two FIA officials – Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas, will act as F1 race directors on alternate race weekends and will be supported by a virtual race control room. Furthermore, veteran FIA official Herbie Blash will serve in an advisory role, supporting race directors while taking crucial decisions.

The main objective of the new decision was to take away the pressure from race directors and allow them to make fair and objective decisions without being influenced by the outside.

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New F1 race director’s tough stance on track limits gets off to a rough start

The issue of track limits has plagued the sport and has been at the root of many controversies for many seasons now.

So when new F1 race director Niels Wittich decided to take a tough stance on the issue during his very first race in charge, it was largely welcomed by fans, and teams alike. Wittich announced that from now on, the white lines on either side of the track will be considered the official track limits and that it will apply to the whole circuit.

The new rule was included in Wittich’s race director’s notes published on Friday, but there was no action based on it during the practice sessions. As practice sessions weren’t competitive enough, many expected race control to strictly enforce track limits during qualifying – the first competitive session of the weekend.

That turned out not to be the case, however, at least during the first part of qualifying. Many drivers, including Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, ran off the track on the final turn of the Bahrain International Circuit during their final runs of Q1, yet managed to keep their lap times and progress into Q2.

While some drivers kept their initials in Q2 as well, race control seemed to enforce track limits from then on, with many drivers including Zhou Guanyu and George Russell losing their lap times at key moments.