Andrea Stella has called for changes following contact between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in the closing laps of the Austrian Grand Prix.
A slow second stop and having to be held for Norris opened the race up as Verstappen’s 7s lead was quickly down to less than a second.
After late braking moves offensively and defensively, drivers ending up in the run off — including one that ultimately gave Norris a 5s penalty for track limits — it call came to a head on lap 64 as the leaders collided.
With the three-time defending World Champion covering the inside, he eased across towards the outside where Norris was. Contact was made, with Verstappen picking up a puncture. Norris had too much damage to carry on.
Despite picking up a 10-second penalty, Verstappen comfortably maintained P5, gaining 11 points on Norris in the Drivers’ Championship.
Due to the consequences of incidents like this, Andrea Stella says harsher penalties have to be considered.
The Italian believes it’s important that the sport avoids a repeat of 2021, when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had a series of collisions and controversial clashes.
“That’s a tricky one. That’s a tricky one because if the stewards elected that the 10 seconds was an appropriate penalty, they, to some extent, go by their rule book. It’s complex because sometimes the outcome can be minor, sometimes it can be big, like in this case with a car taken out and the other car with a race heavily compromised.
“I don’t want to be in a position where I make everything simple or it was clear. Things sometimes are complex. They deserve enough reflection.
“I think the 10 seconds, as a matter of fact, today was ineffective and we have the driver that we are trying to chase in the classification that gained 10 points.
“[It] definitely deserves a reflection. I’m sure the FIA will approach this case, like I said before, as an episode which gives us a richness of cases that should be analysed and think how do we move forward, because we don’t want to see another 2021.
“I thought that was not a good point in Formula 1 racing. It might have been entertaining, but not for good reasons.”
Although Verstappen and Norris have finished 1-2 in China, Miami, Imola, Canada and Spain, Austria was the first time that they went wheel-to-wheel over a series of laps.
The McLaren team principal believes a lot of lessons can be taken from today to be applied for the future, such as giving a warning flag to Verstappen as he felt the Dutchman was consistently moving under braking.
He also says track limit violations need looking at as Norris picked up his 5-second penalty for one of his attempted passes on Verstappen as he got a fourth strike running off at turn 3.
“Look, definitely this race has given us a lot of good information to fix some of the aspects which are needed to go racing in a way that we can enjoy this kind of battle until the chequered flag.
“Like for me it’s a big shame that we didn’t see the last 6-7 laps because they would have been quite entertaining. And they are not entertaining because simply the rules were not enforced, because it would have been enough to give Max the warning like a white and black flag, don’t do it again and it would have been much more prudent in closing the door on Lando.
“When it comes to track limits, I think if the track limit is because you are trying to overtake somebody and you lock a little bit, then I’m wondering what kind of racing are we going to have if this is enforced in this way because drivers will not even attempt to overtake because it will cost me one of the three strikes I have available. But this one I think can be easily resolved and we are not upset about this.
“We think it’s wrong but it’s important that it’s addressed for the future because we want to see a distinction between track limits that are genuine because you are trying to take an advantage in terms of racing line and track limits that come with a big loss of advantage because you went off, and they have to do with the racing manoeuvres that we all enjoy and that’s why we are here in our own jobs because that’s the racing we like.”
Stella once again spoke about 2021 and that things have not been tightened up sufficiently since that extremely controversial campaign.
He believes it’s important for McLaren to know that Red Bull and Verstappen will race them cleanly and not resort to potential dirty tricks.
“I think that’s it. In every kind of human dynamics, if you don’t address things, as soon as you introduce competition, as soon as you introduce a sense of injustice or I said, these things escalate.
“And I think here there was an incomplete job, let’s say, that comes from the past and there’s a legacy that as soon as there was a trigger, immediately became a case that escalated.
“So I think this one, like I said before, this episode today should be taken as an opportunity to tighten up, to clamp up the boundaries and in fairness enforcing some of the rules which are already in place.
“But we need to be very clear that these rules cannot be abused in a way that then leaves a margin to do a couple of times the same manoeuvre and you know what, the third time there’s going to be an accident. Of course, even statistically, there’s going to be an accident.
“Like I say, there’s obviously frustration for today but for me what’s important is that this is now taken as an opportunity for the FIA, for the sport, so that we can in the future hopefully enjoy more of these battles, which means that McLaren is in condition to race Red Bull, but knowing that this is not going to end up with a collision, or for us a lot of points gone and a victory which I think Lando deserved to have the opportunity to have.
“It could have been Max, it could have been Lando, that’s racing. But racing with collisions, we don’t like it.”
