Stella sharply criticizes Max Verstappen and refers to the incident with Lewis Hamilton

An angry McLaren boss Andrea Stella pointed to the example of Max Verstappen in Sao Paulo 2021 and said that this led to his contact with Lando Norris in Austria.

Stella watched his team lose a potential victory when Verstappen hit Norris on lap 64, sending the McLaren man onto the track and handing the Dutchman a 10-second penalty. He said the FIA ​​should have done more to draw a clear line on this type of contact.

Andrea Stella targets Red Bull and Max Verstappen after the accident in Austria

After leaving the McLaren pit wall, Stella immediately mentioned the example of Sao Paulo 2021, where Verstappen came into contact with Lewis Hamilton in a similar way, but this maneuver was ultimately not investigated by race control.

“I see that the entire world population knows who is responsible for this, apart from a group of people (Red Bull),” Stella said on Sky F1. “But the problem behind this is that, frankly, if you don’t address these things, they’re going to come back.”

“They came back today because they were not addressed properly in some of the battles with Lewis in the past. That should have been punished in a harsher way. You learn to race in a certain way that we can consider fair and honest.”

“There have been many incidents. The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max. You don’t have to do that. You don’t have to do that to the point of almost jeopardising your reputation. Why would you do that?”

Further reactions to the major accident at the Austrian Grand Prix

Revealed: The crucial asset that Lando Norris was missing in the heated battle against Max Verstappen

Lando Norris “would lose a lot of respect” if the “stupid” Max Verstappen does not admit his guilt

In response to the claim that it was aggressive racing, similar to that of Michael Schumacher, with whom Stella had worked at Ferrari, the current McLaren boss said that the race management had already decided who was to blame.

“The race directors have determined that Max is entirely at fault for this incident,” he continued. “So it’s not about driving the driver’s way, it’s about driving within the rules. And the rules have to be enforced effectively because if a car retires from the race as a result of this accident, the penalty has to be proportionate to the result.”

“And we had two braking incidents before the incident. I think it’s very clear that we have to enforce the way we race because we want to have fun and enjoy the race.”

Continue reading: Austrian GP: Tempers flare between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, Russell is given the win