© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella says Max Verstappen’s on-track antics were “not addressed properly in the past, when there was some fights with Lewis”.
Near the end of the Austrian Grand Prix, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen collided while fighting for the race win.
The Dutch driver was handed a ten-second penalty for causing the collision, and his antics throughout the entire fight reminded observers of the way he raced against Lewis Hamilton back in 2021.
Afterwards, McLaren’s Team Principal Andrea Stella said Verstappen would not be doing these things today, had he been properly punished back then.
“I see it that the entire population in the world would know who is responsible except for a group of people, but the problem behind it, is that if you don’t address these things honestly, they would come back,” the Italian said.
“They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past, when there was some fights with Lewis, that needed to be punished in a harsher way.
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“Like this, you learn how to race in a certain way which we can consider fair and square.
“The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max. They don’t need to do this – it’s a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?
“I think the stewards found that Max was fully to blame in this episode, so it’s not about racing in a driver’s way, it’s about racing within the regulations.
“And the regulations must be enforced in a way that is effective because when a car is out of the race as a consequence of this accident, the punishment needs to be proportionate to the outcome,” Stella concluded.
