McLaren have called for an inquiry into the penalty Lando Norris was given for ignoring yellow flags during the Qatar Grand Prix.
Team principal Andrea Stella said the decision to give Norris a 10-second stop-and-go penalty - the severest that can be handed out other than a disqualification - "lacked any specificity and proportion".
The decision dropped Norris from second place, and a close fight with the leader and eventual winner Max Verstappen, to an eventual 10th place.
And it took McLaren from a position where they would have needed just a couple of points in the the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi next weekend to secure the constructors' championship, to seeing their lead over Ferrari cut to 21 points. There are a maximum of 44 points available in one weekend.
Stella said the penalty decision was "a little too simplistic", adding: "To me it looks like somewhere there must be a book with a lot of dust on the cover that was taken out: 'Let me see what it says; let me apply this.'"
His remarks allude to a period of turmoil at governing body the FIA in which the race director changed just one race ago, with three grands prix before the end of the season, and a senior steward was fired just last week.
Rui Marques made his debut as race director at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a week before Qatar. He was drafted in at the last minute after the previous race director, Niels Wittich, was fired. No explanation has been given by the FIA for Wittich's dismissal.
Stella's criticism of the FIA was shared by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who said of the governing body: "Rationality needs to win and for me it doesn't look like this at the moment."
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