Stella slams the stewards in Austria: 'It's a big shame'

F1 News

andrea stella reacts to max verstappen and lando norris incident in austria
1 July at 09:44
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  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was not shy with some of his comments after the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix. The Italian saw Lando Norris' chance to take a second win of the season disappear in front of his eyes as the Brit and Max Verstappen made contact on lap 62, resulting in both drivers getting punctures and seeing his driver retire from the race. Verstappen was given a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision, but the McLaren team boss said changes need to be made to the way racing is done in F1.

After a poor stop from Red Bull, Norris sat just two seconds behind Verstappen after the Dutchman had controlled the race. with Norris on the faster medium tyre and closing Verstappen down, the McLaren driver tried to divebomb past Verstappen several times, but to no avail. However, a couple of laps later, some movement under braking from the Dutchman as the Brit looked to go around the outside meant they touched and ruined their races. Verstappen salvaged his race and finished fifth, whereas Norris was forced to retire.

After the race, team boss Stella had some strong words to say about the nature of racing in Formula 1 that led to his driver missing out on the chance of race victory while his closest competitor was able to finish in P5 and receive a 10-second penalty that did not impact his race.

Stella says "rules were not enforced" during the race

Speaking to the media in the paddock, which included GPblog, Stella said, "The race today has given us a lot of good information to fix some of the aspects which are needed to go racing in a way where we can enjoy these kinds of battles until the chequered flag. For me, it is a big shame that we didn't see the last six, seven laps because they would have been quite entertaining, and they are not entertaining because simply the rules were not enforced."

Although Norris was close to receiving a penalty for track limits during the battle, Stella is instead talking about the fact that Verstappen was not given a warning for his earlier movement under braking while defending from Norris' divebombs, something that Stella double downed on after talking about it to the TV broadcasters.

"It would have been enough to give Max the warning, like a white and black flag, to say, 'Don't do that again.' And he would have been much more prudent in closing the door on Lando. This one can be easily resolved. But we're not upset about this. We think this is wrong, but it's important that it is addressed for the future," Stella concluded.