'When this happens next time...' - F1 stewards questioned after Lando Norris 'jump start'

Sky Sports F1 pundit Naomi Schiff was perplexed by the stewards’ decision not to penalise Lando Norris at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Norris appeared to jump the start on the opening lap in Jeddah with onboard showing his McLaren moving forward in his grid spot, stopping and then going again when the lights went out at the start.

The stewards investigated it following a complaint from George Russell but cleared Norris of any wrongdoing.

The stewards noted: "The stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and determined that the video appeared to show that car 4 moved before the start signal was given," the stewards said.

"However, the FIA approved and supplied transponder fitted on the car did not indicate a jump start.

"Article 48.1 a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations states clearly that the judgement of whether or not there was a jump start is to be made in accordance with the transponder, which did not show a jump start. In the circumstances, we took no further action.”

While the transponder didn’t notify the stewards of a jump start, Schiff felt from the onboard video evidence, it was clear cut.

“Honestly, I don’t understand. He has clearly moved before the lines have gone out,” he said.

“He has not only clearly moved before the lines have gone out, but he’s positioned outside of the box! Now, there’s already two out of three options for how you can do a false start. I don’t know.

“Apparently they taken sympathy? I don’t know how I feel about that! Clearly nobody else felt strongly enough about it to push it. For us, or anyone else judging the sport, when this happens next time will they have sympathy? Or how do we judge it? That’s my question.

Ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok added: “It looked to me, before the replay, like he had gone over the line.

“Because he got clear, I thought it was within tolerance. The slo-mo shows otherwise.”