McLaren F1 boss Andrea Stella believes the dramatic on-track spat between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Sunday’s Austrian GP was allowed to happen because of too much leniency towards the Dutchman’s actions in the past.
Norris and Verstappen were locked in a thrilling late-race battle at the Red Bull Ring when disaster struck at Turn 3. Verstappen's aggressive move across on Norris resulted in a collision that left both drivers with a punctured tyre and a ruined race.
Norris slammed Verstappen's maneuver as "reckless," accusing him of a dangerous move under braking.
While Red Bull defended the three-time world champion, Stella placed the blame squarely on Verstappen's shoulders, as did the stewards who hit the Dutchman with a ten-second penalty.
But more importantly, Stella argued that the incident was a direct result of unchecked precedents set in the past.
In particular, Stella believes that Verstappen's past battles with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 lacked proper consequences, leading to a more aggressive driving style which the Red Bull driver exploited in Sunday’s race against Norris.
“The entire population of the world knows who was responsible except for a group of people,” the McLaren team principal told Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz after the race.
“If you don’t address these things honestly, they will come back. They weren’t addressed properly in the past when there were fights with Lewis [Hamilton] that needed to be punished in a harsher way.
“Like this, you learn how to race in a certain way.”
Without harsher penalties, Stella believes Verstappen was emboldened to continue this aggressive style when required. But the Italian believes the bigger issue lies in enforcing the rules consistently, and with a more severe penalty system.
“There were many episodes,” he continued. “We have so much respect for Red Bull, and for Max, that they don’t need to do this.
“Almost compromise your reputation? Why would you do that?
“The stewards found Max was fully to blame in this episode. It’s not about racing in a driver’s way. It’s about driving within the regulations.
“The regulations must be enforced in a way that is effective.
“When a car is out of the race, as a consequence, then the punishment needs to be proportionate to the outcome.
“Before this episode, twice he moved in braking. It is evident that we have to enforce the way to go racing.”
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton came to blows in the 2021 Italian GP at Monza.
Addressing the media in Austria later in the day, Stella reiterated his call for tighter scrutiny by the FIA and harsher sanctions.
“In every kind of human dynamics, if you don’t address things, as soon as you introduce competition, as soon as you introduce a sense of injustice, these things escalate,” he explained.
“It’s like anything. Here there was incomplete job, let’s say, that comes from the past, and is a legacy that as soon as there was a trigger, immediately, outburst it.
“Immediately it became a case that escalated. So I think this one like I said before, this episode today should be taken as an opportunity to tighten up, to plump up the boundaries, and in fairness, enforcing some of the rules that are already in place.
“But we need to be very clear that these rules cannot be abused in a way that then leaves a margin to do a couple of times the same manoeuvre, and you know the third time there is going to be an accident. Of course, even statistically, there is going to be an accident.
“Like I say, there is obviously frustration to today, but for me what is important is this is now taken as an opportunity for the FIA, for the sport, so that we can in the future hopefully enjoy more of these battles that means McLaren is in condition to race Red Bull, but knowing that this is not going to end up with a collision. For us, there’s a lot of points gone.
“And a victory which I think Lando deserved to have the opportunity to have. It could have been Max, it could have been Lando. That’s racing. But racing like with collisions, we don’t like it.”
Questioned about Stella’s comments and his belief of the existence a legacy issue linked to unpunished past actions by Verstappen, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff disagreed with his colleague’s view.
“I don’t think you can take this conclusion,” commented Wolff.
“It’s been so long and from our side, we are in a different place today, and I think he is. It takes two to tango. I haven’t seen Lando and Max’s race to be honest. I haven’t seen how all of that came about.
“I first need to watch it before I have an opinion but I wouldn’t see that as a big consequence of 2021 not having been managed well to what happened in 2024.
“I don’t think they have a correlation.”
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