McLaren team boss reacts to 'peculiar' call as VCARB rob Norris of a point
F1 News
Andrea Stella wants the relationship between Red Bull Racing and VCARB to be "addressed" following Daniel Ricciardo's successful attempt to take the fastest lap bonus point away from Lando Norris. The McLaren team boss didn't directly accuse Red Bull of collaboration in that particular example but did find it "peculiar" and a "surprise".
Norris held the fastest lap of the race in the closing stages and looked set to reduce his World Championship deficit on Max Verstappen by eight points. That was until VCARB, Red Bull's sister team, called Ricciardo in for a set of soft tyres. The Australian took the fastest lap of the race away from Norris, costing him a point in his World Championship fight with Red Bull's Verstappen.
An emotional Ricciardo pointed out that it could end up helping Verstappen come the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale in December. But VCARB team boss Laurent Mekies explained they wanted to give Ricciardo something to savour in what could be the final race of his Formula 1 career. Ricciardo finished outside of the top ten and, therefore, didn't receive the fastest lap bonus point, but he successfully stopped Norris from scoring the point.
How did McLaren react to Ricciardo's fastest lap?
"I did not see it coming. I was a little surprised that the highest priority of Racing Bulls racing in Singapore was to go and score the fastest lap of the race. At the same time, I have so much sympathy, support and friendship with Daniel that I'm just happy that he added this fastest lap to his track record," Stella said after the race before admitting he found it "a little peculiar".
"This is a big matter. You know, as soon as you invoke the sportsmanship, I think you need to approach this with a sense of responsibility, that I want to have. I don’t know the facts. I just saw that Racing Bulls [VCARB] went for the fastest lap, and they achieved it. But for me here talk about sportsmanship and so on, I think is… it would be out of place. So I think we have to take it at face value. They scored the fastest lap," he added.
"Potentially as part of a longer-term conversation, we need to put the sport in a position in which at any stages - being it trackside or being factory-side - teams behave in a totally autonomous manner. This is a Constructors' Championship. It's a Drivers' Championship. It is not a coalition championship. This needs to definitely be addressed. But at no point I have elements now to say Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap to support the Red Bull," he concluded.
The outcome means Norris has a 52-point gap to bridge with six Grands Prix and three sprint races remaining. He will need to take an average of 8.7 points out of Verstappen's lead each weekend to win the World Championship. Had he secured the bonus point, it would've been 8.5 points per weekend on average.
Zak Brown, McLaren's CEO, put Red Bull and their relationship with VCARB under a magnifying glass in January. Before the season started, he stated that the sport needed to "tackle it" as he saw the partnership strengthening between the two teams.