Taylor Baird

Tom: "a few listeners said you were quite lenient on lando when it came to that collision in the sprint. do you still stand by that?" Jolyon: "yeah. i do. i still think exactly what i said. go and listen to it again, listeners. the narrative is extremely strong against norris, i'm aware of that. but i'm just objectively looking at it and i see a driver that's under control on the inside that is then the space is taken away from him when, according to the guidelines, he warrants the space. and that's where you've got to race to, haven't you?" Tom: "but take one step back, why was he even trying the move at that stage in the race against your teammate when the team's not going to benefit from the points total?" Jolyon: "because he's a racing driver and it's a race tc" Tom: "you're sounding like lando now, that's exactly what he said" Jolyon: "yeah and you know what, these guys are racing drivers. there was no team order for him to hold position, so if mclaren had given him team orders, you'd say he's gone against the team, that's crazy! but he's after the best result he can get. he's gone for a move that i don't think is an outrageous attempt. he's not absolutely bulldozed into the side of oscar. he's made it over the apex curb. he's got the car slowed sufficiently. and on the other side, you've got oscar turning in, not giving the space at the apex. so yeah, it is a race. they didn't instruct him to hold positions. for me, the incident itself is a racing incident. you could put more blame on lando because he's the one that can see it open up in front of him. he's also been quicker for so many laps and the team could have orchestrated a swap round. if they wanted to maximize their score, they could have put lando ahead of oscar and they're not going to have this decision where the faster driver is bottled up behind a slower driver, and then you don't want him to try and make a move, but you're not going to tell him to hold position. you're going to be annoyed when he does, and then it's a collision. and again, i look at the collision. he's not all steamed up, locked on the brakes, desperate to get on the inside. he's down the inside, fair and square, on the way into the corner. and then the space gets taken away, and that's where i see the incident going. so for all those reasons, i know i'm against the narrative, but i'm looking at it in my own objective way, whether people agree or disagree with me. that's how i see it." [F1 Nation Podcast]