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After the carnage that followed the second restart at the Australian Grand Prix, Lando Norris has placed the blame for the chaos squarely at the feet of F1's Pirelli tyres.
Lando Norris has blamed the chaos after the Australian Grand Prix's second restart to the Pirelli F1 tyres used by all the teams, saying they provide 'literally no grip'.
After a red flag was thrown to remove Kevin Magnussen's stricken Haas and assorted debris from the circuit, the action resumed with a standing restart on Lap 56 of 58.
But almost immediately there was chaos at the first couple of corners, with Carlos Sainz tipping Fernando Alonso into a spin, Pierre Gasly running wide and colliding with Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon, and Logan Sargeant punting Nyck de Vries into the gravel trap.
Norris, who was eventually classified sixth, said the decisions to issue red flags and standing restarts over deploying the Safety Car were made by people with little understanding of the challenges the drivers face in terms of grip levels.
"The people who make decisions don't know what's going on inside the car," Norris told media, including RacingNews365.com.
"We have a Soft [tyre] on that’s 65 degrees [Celsius], and I can't describe how little grip there is on track.
"It's not a bad temperature, but the tyre doesn't work and on this surface with this tyre temperature, I can't describe how bad the grip is.
"That's why you see everyone going straight on in Turn 1 and locking up. It provides literally no grip, so you have to brake so early, which causes chaos and causes incidents."
In 2022, F1 cars' wheel diameters grew from 13 to 18 inches, with the temperature of tyre blankets reduced to 70 degrees Celsius, down from 100 degrees on the front tyres and 80 on the rears.
Norris said the chaos at Melbourne's second restart stemmed from the lack of grip offered by the sport's current specification of tyres.
"If the tyres felt like they gave us some grip, I think you'd be able to see a good race without chaos and some clumsiness and things like that. It's just difficult," said Norris.
"I wouldn't say it's clumsy from everyone. It's just you're racing and there's no grip, as simple as that.
"We need a tyre that gives us some more grip, and actually a tyre that feels like it should be on a Formula 1 car at the top of motorsport and at the moment, it feels pretty terrible."
After the race, Pirelli explained that tyre warmups for the first restart were hampered by an unusually slow warmup lap to the grid by Lewis Hamilton, whilst an ambient temperature drop of around 10 degrees Celcius towards the end of the race caught out some of the drivers for the second restart.
Balve Baines is joined by RacingNews365.com Editorial Director Dieter Rencken and Asia Correspondent Michael Butterworth to dissect the key talking points from the Australian Grand Prix.
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