Revealed: The truth behind Christian Horner’s Norris telemetry data

Christian Horner has argued an incorrect stewards’ interpretation of the manoeuvre that cost Max Verstappen the first of two 10-second time penalties at the Mexican GP.

The Red Bull team boss used a telemetry graph to explain his point. At PlanetF1.com, we’ve been able to access the full telemetry: so how much truth is there in Horner’s arguments?

Explained: Christian Horner’s Lando Norris data

The graph Horner showed us in the photograph, taken by our colleague Elizabeth Blackstock at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, shows us three different figures: the first one is a speed comparison between Lando Norris‘ lap 10 incident with Verstappen and Norris’ lap 68 data where he does his personal fastest lap of the race.

On the other hand, the second figure is a time delta between those two laps where the reference is the lap of the incident.

And finally, at the bottom of the graph, we can see the gear ratio of both laps but cropped, although these last two figures are of little relevance and can be ignored for this matter.

If we access the telemetry for both laps we can also access the speed, acceleration and braking data, which is what the Red Bull team boss alludes to in arguing that Norris brakes later in his incident with Verstappen on lap 10.

Indeed, Horner comments that Norris is 15km/h faster on lap 10 compared to his fastest lap are true.

Norris is, according to our data, 14 km/h faster before reaching the braking zone at Turn 4 on the lap of the incident with Verstappen.

But there is one important thing that Horner is missing: on lap 10 Norris has the slipstream and DRS effect from Verstappen.

However, on his flying lap, Norris is in clean air and has neither of these two factors helping him to have extra speed.

Therefore, it does weaken the argument to just talk about speed approaching the corner.

As for the throttle, we can see that Norris clearly lifts his foot off the throttle well before he reaches Turn 4 braking on lap 10.

However, it is true that he lifts his foot more progressively and not as abruptly as he did on lap 68.

But this is because in order to try to make the overtake and have the advantage on the apex over Verstappen at Turn 4, it was necessary to do it that way.

As for the use of the brakes, Horner’s claim that Norris braked later in the overtake on Verstappen around the outside of Turn 4 on Lap 10 is incorrect.

It is not as obvious as in the case of the throttle, but it does show that Norris brakes just a few metres later on his personal fastest lap of the race.

Horner has a good point though in his discourse about this incident and that is again to invoke the subjectivity of the facts.

According to the FIA’s interpretation and my own telemetry analysis, Norris was able to make the corner and it is Verstappen who forces him off the track using more throttle than Norris at the exit of the apex.

However, Horner is of the opinion that this is not the case and invokes the stewards’ misinterpretation of the incident which is as follows: “The Stewards believe that the manoeuvre was done in a safe and controlled manner and that Norris would have been able to make the manoeuvre on the track had he not been forced off the track by Verstappen.”

In my opinion, if Norris really hadn’t been able to make the corner as Horner says, Verstappen wouldn’t have needed to go to the limit and force him off the track.

In that case Norris himself would have exceeded the track limits on his own and Verstappen would not have had to defend the position so aggressively.

The stewards’ incorrect interpretation is something that McLaren also considered in the Austin controversy, claiming that Norris was the “defending driver” and not the “attacking driver”, although as we explained in our analysis of that incident, that interpretation made a lot of sense when analysing the telemetry and the positions of both cars.

Horner himself has admitted that this time they will not exercise their right to review the stewards’ decision as the Woking team did.

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There is something else in Horner’s comments that is quite striking: when he talks about the use of apex to determine which driver has the privileged position when it comes to an overtaking manoeuvre.

He said: “So I think we run the risk of…. it used to be a prize for the bravest to go around the outside. I think we run the risk of turning the overtaking laws around, where drivers will try to overtake at the apex, and then argue that you have to give them space on the exit.”

“You can clearly see that he overbraked, he came in too late to try and win that argument, as the regulations are written, and at that point you get penalised.”

Horner refers again in this case to the Driving Standard Guidelines regarding overtaking on the outside of a corner, which mention the particularity of being in front at the apex of the corner and the advantage this gives to the overtaking car: “In considering what is a ‘significant part’, for an overtake on the outside of a corner, among the various factors to be considered by the stewards in exercising their discretion, the stewards will take into account whether the overtaking car is ahead of the other car from the apex of the corner.”

Certainly this is a strategy that Verstappen has been using for years with success whether overtaking on the inside or the outside, not least at the US GP where the Dutch driver clearly sought to stay ahead of Norris at the apex of Turn 12 with no intention of staying within the track limits.

As Horner himself commented after this incident in Austin: “Obviously all the drivers know perfectly well what the rules are, they discuss these issues and specific corners in the briefings with the various stewards, stewards and the Race Director.”

So apparently now that the Red Bull team boss has seen that his driver’s most direct rival has learned his lesson on how to use the guidelines to his advantage, he is no longer happy with the ‘overtaking laws’ that have so often favoured Verstappen in the last years, because the Dutch driver was the only one brave enough to risk everything to follow those overtaking laws to the millimetre.

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