PALMER: Norris was in great overtaking form in Canada – but was his ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’ penalty fair?

When George Russell triggered a Safety Car with his crash at Turn 9 on Lap 12 of the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix, the field were all still bunched up, and mostly keen to pit to change their predominantly medium compound starting tyres. There are many different strategy scenarios and permutations that are taken into account pre-race by the teams, including what to do in the event of a Safety Car on any given lap.

It can never be entirely accurately mapped out pre-race because you don’t know exactly what position you’ll be in, who will be around you or what they will be thinking, so strategists need to be thinking on their feet. But by and large, the obvious decision was to pit for a hard tyre that could theoretically go to the end.