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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
SPIELBERG, Austria — McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes the collision between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix was a legacy of the Dutchman’s driving style going unpunished during his title battle with Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
The contact between the two drivers at the head of the race at the Red Bull Ring resulted in punctures for both, allowing George Russell to inherit the lead and take the victory.
The stewards gave Verstappen a 10-second penalty for causing the collision, but Stella believes it would not have happened if he had been punished for transgressions earlier in his career.
“The entire population of the world knows who was responsible except for a group of people,” The McLaren boss said.
“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 that needed to be punished in a harsher way.
“Like this, you learn how to race in a certain way.”
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Asked if he was referring specifically to the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix, where Verstappen forced Hamilton off the track in a battle for the lead but was not punished, Stella said: “There were many episodes.
“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.”
Stella called on the FIA to review its rules around racing and enforce stronger penalties or face a situation where Verstappen continues to push beyond the limits of what’s acceptable.
“I think that’s it. 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. 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 there is an outburst.
“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.
“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.”