Andrea Stella insists Max Verstappen stance ‘not personal’ but doubles-down
McLaren's Andrea Stella has doubled down on his take about Max Ve🐠rstappen's driving in his battle with Lando Norris.
McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has doubled down on his views about 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen’s overly-aggressive driving against168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lando Norris in the Austrianಌ Grand Prix but insists his st🤪ance is not “personal”.
Verstappen and Norris came to blows while battling for the lead in the closing stages of last weekend’s race at the Red Bull Ring, ruining their respective shots at victory and opening the door for Mercedes’ 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell to claim an unlikely win.
After the contentious finish, Stella suggested that Verstappen’s approach to racing Norris was a consequence of the Dutchman not being more severely punished for several controversial flashpoints with seven-time world champion168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lewis Hamilton during their epic 2021 title battle.
While Verstappen and Norris have moved to prevent the duel from escalating and impacting their friendship off-tra🐽ck, Stella remains co♛nvinced that the Red Bull driver was in the wrong.
“There are different things to consider,” Stella told Sky Sports F1. “The first is that Lando needs to drive, he needs♛ to move on. If he st🤪ays with the head from one week ago, he won’t do a good job at Silverstone.
“The car is compꦰetitive and we want to capitalise so Lando is looking forward, and we support his point of view.
“The second consideration is thꦺat; at no point is this a personal maꦗtter. There is no attempt to polarise the views.
“But, for me, there is data, videos, facts, analysis, GPS data which we spent a lot of time trying to confirm our initꦯial opinions. I have to say that our init𝔍ial opinions were confirmed.”
Asked if Verstappen turned in on Norris under braking, Stella said: "Yes, definitely. If these manoeuvres were addressed immediately with a warning, there would have been noꦜ escalation. This♛ is clear to the stewards.
"Now is the time to move on, learn as much as possible, put⛄ Formula 1 in a better position in terms of enforcing the regulations.”
Stella said McLaren h🍸ave not reached out to Red Bull following the incident and have i꧂nstead sought clarification from F1’s governing body the FIA.
“Our counterparts in this conversation is actually the FIA,” Stella said. “There is nothing📖 personal, we have respect for Red Bull and Max, and wha🌊t they have achieved.
“We sought clarification and were satisfied with the answers from the stewards a♉nd t๊he FIA.”
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