McLaren F1 demands clarity from FIA after a controversial on-track encounter between Verstappen and Norris.
Andrea Stella, McLaren F1 Team Principal, has stated that his team is unequivocal about Max Verstappen’s manoeuvre against Lando Norris in Austria. He confirms that all telemetry, video footage, and factual analyses indicate that the Red Bull driver made contact with his rival.
“There are several considerations here,” Stella remarked. “The first is that Lando, as you know, is the one who needs to drive, to push forward. If you remain mentally stuck a week behind, you won’t perform well here at Silverstone.”
“We see that the car is competitive, and we absolutely want to capitalise, so Lando is looking ahead, and we support this perspective. The second consideration is that at no point is this a personal matter. There is no attempt, certainly not on our part, to polarise opinions—it’s either black or white.”
“That’s not the case, I believe, globally there is polarisation. That’s not what we want. But for me, there are data, videos, facts, GPS analyses, which we have spent considerable time trying to validate our initial viewpoints. I must say that our initial opinions have been confirmed.”
When asked to confirm if Verstappen indeed collided with Norris, the Italian was convinced: “Yes, without a doubt. And as I said after the race, had these manoeuvres been immediately dealt with a warning, with a black and white flag, I think there would have been no escalation. It’s clear, and now it’s clear to the stewards, I believe.”
“It’s time to move forward, to learn as much as possible from the opportunities we had. There was a wealth of information from Austria to put Formula 1 in a better position in terms of policy and enforcement of existing regulations on how you race.”
However, he clarified that McLaren had not communicated with Red Bull but had sought clarification from the federation about potential future consequences: “Our counterpart in this type of conversation is actually the FIA. As I’ve said before, there’s nothing personal, nothing polarised.”
“I said it immediately, I have a lot of respect for Red Bull, for Max, for what they have achieved, but our counterpart is the FIA and the stewards. We simply asked for clarification and were satisfied with the response we received from the stewards and the FIA.”
F1 Tension: McLaren Seeks FIA Insight on Norris Clash. F1 Tension: McLaren Seeks FIA Insight on Norris Clash
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