Stella hits out at Verstappen's aggressive move against Norris

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has hit out at reigning champion's Max Verstappen's aggressive defensive move against Lando Norris that saw the Briton suffer a race-ending damage to his car.

Although Max Verstappen dominated the majority of the Austrian Grand Prix, a mistake during his second pit stop saw him lose his comfortable gap to the McLaren of Lando Norris.

The Briton was adamant to capitalize on the opportunity, and with getting within DRS range, he attempted multiple overtaking manoeuvres. The pair eventually came together on Lap 64 at the Red Bull Ring when Verstappen moved slightly to the left to fend off the attack from Norris.

The incident saw both drivers pick up punctures as Norris was forced out of the race due to the damage he sustained. Although Verstappen was able to continue, he only finished fifth.

Speaking to Sky Sport F1, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella was very annoyed that a great battle between the pair ended in disaster.

The Italian went as far as claiming that Verstappen only dared to be as aggressive as he was because he had avoided penalties during his battles with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton when the pair fought for the world championship title in 2024.

“I see that the entire population in the world know who is responsible except for a group of people [Red Bull]. But the problem behind it is that if you don’t address these things, honestly, they will come back.

“They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past when there were some fights with Lewis. That needed to be punished in a harsher way like this. You learn how to race in a certain way, which we can consider fair and square.

“[There have been] many episodes. The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max. They don’t need to do this. They don’t need to do this as a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?

“The stewards found that Max was fully to blame in this episode. So it’s not about racing in a driver’s way, it’s about racing within the regulations and the regulations must be enforced in a way that is effective because when a car is out of the race as a consequence of this accident, the punishment needs to be proportionate to the outcome.

“And we had before the incident, twice moving under braking. So I think it’s just evident we have to enforce the way to go racing because we want to have fun and we want to enjoy.”

Despite the disastrous end to the race, Stella was buoyed by the performance of the MCL36, and also praised the work of the outfit's trackside work.

“We come away from this event in Austria with a double podium finish in the Sprint and a podium finish for Oscar in the main race, which confirms once again the trajectory of the team. We are now in a condition to contend for the top positions at every kind of circuit.

"There’s quite a lot of confirmation of the strengths, in terms of the car performance, in terms of the operations, in terms of the whole team working together, united in order to try and bring McLaren to the front of the grid.

“At the same time, there’s also quite a bit of frustration, because of what happened yesterday with the lap-deletion for Oscar, and today, with the collision between Lando and Max, which meant we could not see this battle going to the Chequered Flag, which would have been quite exciting.

"We will make sure we use this frustration to be even more determined and motivated to make our strengths even stronger and be ready for a second part of the season, which has all the conditions to be quite exciting for the papaya colours," concluded Stella.