Norris was told to leave justice to the FIA stewards…
McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella says that Lando Norris has been told to not “find justice yourself” in his fights with Max Verstappen, and instead rely on FIA stewarding decisions.
In effect that message meant not to retaliate on-track should the Red Bull driver do something that Norris felt was unfair.
Verstappen received two 10-second penalties for his moves on Norris in the Mexico City GP, and Stella praised the stewards, suggesting that they “took feedback on board” after the recent Austin controversy.
“I think Lando can look at his own racing, often looking at the half empty glass in relation to what he could do,” he said. “But our conversation and our internal reviews have always been very clear.
“Lando, we like, we approve, we confirm the way you go racing. It’s not for you to go there and trying to find justice yourself.
“You go racing in a fair, sportive way like you do, and then there needs to be a third party that is the stewarding, that will say whether some manoeuvres are correct or not.
“Don’t be desperate. Don’t have to prove anything. You go racing fair and square. This is what we want from Lando. This is what Lando wants from himself.
“And I think it was important, though, that the team kind of confirms that’s what we want from you Lando. That’s what we want to go, racing at McLaren and for a driver driving a McLaren car.
“So in this sense, I think this is a positive day, because it has proven that I think it’s good to race hard, but it can’t be resolved on track by the two drivers. It needs a third party. It needs the authority.
“So we are completely happy with the way Lando has been gone racing before, and anytime I read this kind of headlines, I always needed to have a conversation with Lando reassure him. Don’t worry, he will be all right. Time is a gentleman.”
Regarding the second incident in Mexico Stella said: “I think Lando was going through his normal line, because he would have never expected Max to go for the inside.
“But effectively, I think the development of the incident proved that there was no way to keep the car on track for Max.
“So I think Lando was caught a little bit by surprise, but the evidence is, is that it’s quite fair that he was surprised, because actually, you cannot keep a car on track if you enter the corner on the inside at that speed.”
Stella says Norris knew not to take any risks in the remainder of the Mexican race after getting stuck behind Verstappen following their initial tussle.
“The message we gave to Lando was we have pace, if we can pass him, let’s do it,” he said. “Because we understood at some stage that we could compete with Ferrari, and we were losing time behind Max.
“But obviously we didn’t need to say – Lando knows very well that this kind of overtaking needs to happen in a safe way, because for us, we are competing on both fronts, the drivers’ championship and the constructors’ championship, and even when you engage these kind of battles, you need to think both things, like we need to finish races.
“But this was clear. We have talked extensively about this before the race in our objectives with the drivers, so we didn’t need to repeat to Lando.”
Stella, who made his point by initiating an unsuccessful right of review request after Norris was penalised in Austin, said the stewards had got it right this time.
“In my view, the penalties seem to be consistent with the application of the guidelines in relation to those kinds of incidents,” he noted. “So I think from this point of view, this has been a positive day, because it shows that authority exists.
“It shows that the stewards have done a good job, a good job that surely becomes because of constant review, like we do in F1 in any kind of thing you do, you then review, and you try to improve. And certainly we as a team, there’s many things that we know we can review and improve.
“And to me, it looks like this process has happened also in terms of stewarding, in terms of the FIA having taken some feedback constructively on board. And we appreciate this, and we not as a team, but as a part of the F1 community, I feel like I have to thank the FIA and the stewards.”
He added: “I do trust the work of the stewards. In my view, today, they interpreted the racing scenarios accurately. They applied the guidelines consistently. And like I said, this for me, this is a positive news for everyone.”
Adam Cooper F1 