Norris: F2 drivers, teams being 'let down' by car issues

Lando Norris feels that Formula 2 drivers and teams are being "let down" by recurring issues with the new-spec 2018 car, feeling there is an unpreventable risk of something going wrong on the car every time they go out on-track.

The new, turbocharged F2 car was introduced for 2018 in place of the old GP2/11 that had served Formula 1's primary feeder series for seven seasons, only for a number of issues to arise through the opening four rounds of the season.

Numerous drivers have experienced start-line stalls due to issues with the clutch system, prompting the FIA to look into the matter and put in a fix between the rounds in Azerbaijan and Barcelona, while there have also been a number of engine failures which have sidelined competitors.

Asked about the issues during following the race weekend in Monaco, points leader Norris explained how Carlin teammate Sergio Sette Camara had experienced problems so far this season which had been no fault of the team.

"I think it’s fair when everything is going right, but there’s still a lot of problems. Sergio had a couple of problems, one which was on the team, and another which was not anything the team could fix," Norris told Crash.net.

"You have a lot of people who are stalling, not because it’s the driver’s fault. It's how the clutch works on the car basically. If I do something, the clutch doesn’t just react to what I do. It has kind of a mind of its own. It’s the same for all the other drivers. Sometimes they stall or I stall on a pullaway just because I’m a bit low in the revs.

"But most of the starts I think have been problems with the car. Sometimes it can become quite dangerous. It ruins races because you have people starting second, fourth, sixth, wherever, they worked hard to get there, and then an unfortunate event where they can’t really do anything. It’s been with that, it’s been with blow-ups on the engine, the Virtual Safety Car didn’t work very well, like in Monaco race two. Just all these things.

"It’s a professional championship where it’s very expensive and you’re racing against top drivers, and all these things let down a lot of people who work really hard to try and perfect everything. They do the best job they can, then they go out, and then the engine blows up on the outlap or something."

While Norris has avoided any major issues in a race on his car so far this season, allowing him to forge a 27-point lead at the top of the drivers' championship, the Briton is wary of a problem arising which Carlin will be powerless to prevent.

"I think most of the time it’s fair when it’s racing, but in terms of some people being unlucky here or there, touch wood, nothing’s happened to me as of yet," Norris said.

"We had a problem in practice which we then managed to fix, but it could have happened in the race. Nothing’s happened to my car yet, which is a good thing, and I think the team is doing a good job with keeping up with everything and making sure there’s no problems.

"But something could happen basically. It’s not like we know or we can be very confident that nothing is going to happen. It’s a risk every time we go out that something might happen, but there’s nothing we can do."

Despite efforts by the series to resolve the issues, Norris said how they reflected badly on the teams, who faced having to turn down the engines in a bid to prevent them from blowing up.

"There have been things that they’ve fixed and definitely improved, but it’s still a similar story. George [Russell] blows his engine up in practice, [Jack] Aitken blew it up in the race, and I’m not 100 percent sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the team’s fault," Norris said.

"It makes the team look bad. Loads of drivers have blown up their engine, and it makes the team look bad. The only thing they can do is turn down the engine, then we go out on-track and they’re three seconds slower than what they did last year.

"They do what they can to try and fix it, but it compromises it in other ways. I guess the main thing is the starts and safety-wise, making sure nothing goes wrong on that side of things, which they have improved, but it’s still extremely difficult."