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Andrea Stella made harsh claims about Max Verstappen after the Austrian Grand Prix, but Christian Horner, Red Bull’s Team Principal, was quick to defend his driver.
The Austrian Grand Prix was an eventful race during the final few laps. A shocking crash on Lap 64 between McLaren driver, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen Verstappen sparked a huge debate in the F1 community.
Following the crash, Verstappen received a 10-second penalty from the stewards for causing the collision. He managed to finish the race in P5 whilst Norris was forced to retire due to the damages caused by the contact at Turn 3. The British driver admitted that following the race he could “lose a lot of respect” for Verstappen, his friend off the track.
However, after the Dutchman crossed the line, Horner spoke over the radio, conveying a message that claimed the fault did not lay completely on him. The radio message was as follows:
“Yeah, [Norris] didn’t behave correctly there Max. Desperately unlucky, but you did your very best.”
McLaren’s Team Principal, Andrea Stella, was quick to disagree. In an interview with Sky Sports, Stella reminded the spectators of the 2021 battle between Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen where he made some harsh claims about the Red Bull driver, saying:
“They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past and 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 that can be considered fair and square.”
Lando ⚔️ Max: The battle of Turn 3 #F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/VVMNhUStn4
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 1, 2024
Horner’s response
However, following Stella’s claims, Horner is not happy with Verstappen’s performance being labelled as “wrong and unfair”. When asked about this by Sky Sports, the Red Bull Team Principal said:
“They’ve spoken already. I don’t think there’s an issue, certainly, from Max’s side. He’s not going to change.
“He’s a tough racer…There’s an element, I think, of Lando learning how to race Max and they’re discovering that. Inevitably, there is going to be more close racing between the two of them as the cars look so close over the forthcoming races.”
A collision was ‘always’ going to happen
Horner also said, as reported by Motorsport.com, that a fight between Verstappen and Norris was gonna happen sooner or later due to the British driver getting closer to the Dutchman more every Grand Prix. He continued saying:
“He raced incredibly hard in 2021, he’s a tough racer, and he hasn’t really been racing anyone for two years because he’s been out front so much.
“The conflict between the two of them has been building over two, three, four races where they’ve been racing each other closely and hard, and at some point that was always going to spill over – and it did at Turn 3.
“I think it’s wrong and unfair to label a driver like that and I’m sure in the heat of the moment it was frustrating for Andrea, but that’s just tough racing.
“He worked with Michael Schumacher [at Ferrari] for so many years – he of all people should know that.”
McLaren becoming more competitive has brought many trouble to Red Bull. Norris is currently second in the championship, 81 points behind Verstappen. With McLaren’s development and closeness to Red Bull this season, a battle on track between the two drivers is very likely to be seen again.
Headline image: GettyImages