Peter Windsor points to FIA ruling that could have prevented Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collision

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Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ controversial collision during the Austrian Grand Prix could have been avoided for swifter work from the FIA stewards.

Leading up to the on-track battle, Norris had triggered three lap time deletions from Race Control for breaching track limits at Turns 1 and 3. After the third occasion, he was issued a black and white flag, meaning the fourth breach would result in a penalty from the stewards.

During one of his overtakes on Verstappen, the McLaren driver went up the inside at Turn 3 and overshot the braking zone, causing him to take to the run-off.

As he left the track “for no justifiable reason” the stewards gave him a five-second time penalty, but Peter Windsor believes this should have been handed out quicker to avoid the collision between the pair that effectively ended their chances of winning when speaking on the Cameron F1 podcast.

Peter Windsor feels FIA should be quicker with rulings

The timing of the ruling is critical to the collision, as it was issued moments after the pair collided at Turn 3 on Lap 64.

Race Control had noted that Norris was being looked at for track limit breaches four laps prior, but that does not always lead to an investigation.

Windsor felt this information would have been beneficial to Red Bull and could have helped prevent the collision between Verstappen and Norris.

“It looks as if the FIA put out that ruling about the track limits penalty for Lando only a few seconds after they collided at Turn 3,” said Windsor.

“Red Bull will feel slighted by that, because had they known that information earlier, Max would’ve won that race. He would’ve sat in that slipstream and that was it.”

Red Bull did not inform Verstappen of Norris black and white flag

Radio transcripts of both Verstappen and Norris during their heated battle reveal that Red Bull did not inform the Dutchman when the black and white flag was issued to the McLaren driver.

Had they told him, it is possible that Verstappen would have been less stern in his defence knowing that Norris would be risking a penalty. When he did eventually go off track, the Dutchman could have sat behind him and stayed within five seconds to secure the win.

Martin Brundle believes Red Bull ‘damaged their credibility’ when they informed Verstappen that the collision was Norris’ fault, branding the whole episode ‘unnecessary’ for the defending world champions.

Former F1 driver Damon Hill believes it was “pretty clear” that Verstappen was at fault for the collision, but Red Bull executive Helmut Marko says Norris was a “little more” to blame.