McLaren urges F1 officials to penalize Max Verstappen over the Lando Norris incident.
Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal, has called for the FIA to take action against Formula One world champion Max Verstappen. Lando Norris of McLaren was forced to withdraw from the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday after being hit by Verstappen after a disputed and aggressive battle in the race’s last third.
At the Red Bull Ring, Norris and Verstappen battled for the lead for 12 laps, with Norris constantly attempting to pass the Dutchman, until they collided on lap 64 of 71, both suffering punctures. Norris’ car was damaged to the point that it could not drive any further, while Verstappen finished fifth after the stewards found him culpable and imposed a 10-second penalty. Mercedes’s George Russell went on to win.
Norris accused Verstappen of driving in a reckless and desperate manner and Stella also referenced the racing between Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021 when the pair came together repeatedly in what was a very tight title fight, noting he believed decisions not to punish Verstappen in the past had been an error by the FIA.
Hamilton and Verstappen clashed at Imola, Silverstone, Monza and Jeddah that season. At Interlagos in Brazil, Verstappen pushed Hamilton off the track but that was not deemed as worthy of a penalty at the time, although Hamilton did win. The decision not to censure Verstappen’s driving was widely questioned as legitimising such moves and Stella believed it may have only emboldened him.
“We don’t want to see another 2021. That was not a good point in F1, it might have been entertaining but not for good reasons,” he said. “If you don’t address things, as soon as you introduce competition, as soon as you introduce a sense of injustice, these things escalate.
“There was an incomplete job, that comes from the past and is a legacy that as soon as there was a trigger, immediately it became a case that escalated.”
The penalty for Verstappen in Austria did not affect his finishing position and he was able to extend his lead over Norris in the world championship by a further 10 points to 81, with 13 races remaining. He maintained his actions were the type of incident that occur when drivers attempted to brake late up the inside or go round the outside at turn three at the Red Bull Ring.
Since Norris won at the Miami GP, Verstappen has been under increasing pressure from the Briton, challenging him hard at the front of the grid and reinvigorating the title race. That a wheel-to-wheel contest has ended in acrimony has once more raised question over Verstappen’s uncompromising driving style.
The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, said that despite the stewards finding Verstappen at fault, he also believed it was a racing incident of the kind that would occur when two drivers went at one another in a competitive fight. “It was inevitable,” he said. “You could see this building perhaps for a couple of races. At some point, there was going to be something close between the two of them.”
He also considered there might be more of the same at this week’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, noting he expected it to be a “continuation of the theme that we’ve seen the last few races”.
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