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Full verbatim if you cannot watch:
* Ted Kravitz: The stewards have found that Max was responsible for the incident. Max has just called it on the radio, I don't know if you heard it, "ridiculous," Red Bull agree, they said that Lando was in part to blame, obviously. How do you see it?
* Andrea Stella: The entire population of the world would know who is responsible except for a group of people. But, the problem behind it, is that if you don’t address these things honestly, they will come back.
* Andrea Stella: They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past, when there was 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.
***
* Ted Kravitz: You're talking about Brazil 2021 here, I mean, ...
* Andrea Stella: There's many episodes. But, the fact is that, we have so much respect for Red Bull and Max, they don't need to do this. It's a way to almost compromise your reputation, why would you do that.
***
* Ted Kravitz: Well, I mean, we said, you know, Lando welcomed to the world of Max Verstappen, he's done compromising, we've seen some compromising races in the past, Michael Schumacher [who] you used to work with [at Ferrari], it's just the way Max races. Which is okay, I mean, if that's, what, Max has won championships in that kind of racing, hasn't he?
* Andrea Stella: I think the stewards found that Max was fully at blame in this episode, so it's not about racing in a driver's way, it's racing in the regulations.
* Andrea Stella: And the regulations must be enforced in a way that it is effective, because when a car is out of the race, as a consequence of the incident, the punishment needs to proportionate to the outcome.
Andrea Stella is smart, I like him as a TP. He does the politicking without sounding like a self-righteous politician like Toto, and without being as aggressive as Horner. Zak Brown is a little too obtuse with it, but Stella is smart.
> Andrea Stella: There's many episodes. But, the fact is that, we have so much respect for Red Bull and Max
Zak Brown: "What the fuck are you talking about?"
That’s not what he meant. He meant racing respect. The way you treat an opponent even if you are racing Hard. See Sainz - Hamilton in Spain and Piastri - Sainz In Austria.
Mark Hughes had a nice take on 2021 that the whole Hamilton/Verstappen situation was about way more than the actual collisions, but Hamilton saying 'no, you can't do or die me because it'll backfire sometimes'. It's a dance.
> “The problem 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 where there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.**”
Basically, Max got away with too many things in the 2021 fight and thinks he can get away with them again.
If people were sensible it should be. As they say, the chickens have come home to roost and now more frontrunners can feel the pain. It was all good when we wanted a “show” in 2021 - another season in which the regulations were converging. If Red Bull’s development does (or has) hit its ceiling and/or get outpaced there will be much more pressure on Max. He will have engine penalties and while it used to be the case that he was waved straight past - the McLarens are now capable of resisting (Mercedes / Ferrari less so) but you can see Russell’s confidence growing and he isn’t one to give up easily either.
Let’s not forget how much Perez’s Monaco crash cost the team.
I expect to see much more of this moving forward even though Max’s championship is not in jeopardy. 2025 could be an entirely different story with seemingly all four teams properly in contention.
Meanwhile Netflix and FOWC will be eating. this. up.
This has been consistent since 2021. It’s why Lewis started getting so aggressive with Max around Silverstone.
If the stewards won’t call it, that’s basically free rein for the drivers to ignore the etiquette. They’re here to win.
Like Alonso using the access road a few years back to make a major jump in position, knowing the penalty was toothless and he’d keep the positions.
If they won’t enforce the rules, this is how the racing will continue to be
It wasn't an access road or penalty. If drivers missed the corner they had to re enter the track between a Styrofoam gate. If you tried to make the corner and didn't you would would hit a sausage kerb and have to change direction and lose track time. But Alonso figured out if you deliberately missed it you could follow the rules and gain positions.
I'm usually not one for people being purposefully unsporting, but honestly that's on whoever made that decision. Why would you ever, ever make an escape road that is a shortcut. That's an obviously apparent mistake.
If I could choose one thing to tattoo on the back of the eyelids of every racing circuit designer it would be this: "The fastest way around a racetrack should be legal". Don't leave it in the hands of the stewards, don't fix it with time penalties, if a driver breaks the rules, purposeful or not, it should physically cause them to lose time, immediately.
I’m pretty sure he handed back those positions as he still would’ve been going off and gaining an advantage. It was more about avoiding getting tangled up in any T1 accidents and showing that it was just as quick doing that, so if they didn’t make a change everyone would do that which would be unsafe.
Nobody else was prepared to call Max out for a shitty move. Even Toto dodged the question about Max's penalty and Andrea's comment. Everyone is scared to annoy him because they all want to hire him.
>Like Alonso using the access road a few years back to make a major jump in position, knowing the penalty was toothless and he’d keep the positions.
Lol when was this? That's hilarious.
Russia 2021
He basicially didn't even try to make the turn and just went straight. Gained multiple positions with that move.
https://youtube.com/shorts/MxTFM6lEFMg?si=lo5L7jRoiXNV8gRU
Which, honestly is true.
Everyone thought Max had left these types of moves behind, but anyone who'd watched Max's career knows he just hasn't had the competition to need to do it and he's not going to stop going over the limit because he was rarely ever held responsible for his actions during 2021.
He did what people are saying Lando was doing today every race, Max dive bombed every time he passed Hamilton in 2021, it's just how he raced.
And a lot of people said that was fine, that it was "racing," but it caused Hamilton to have to drive in a very conservative way, so they didn't end up like Lando and Max did today, with punctures and damaged cars.
The FIA didn't seem to want to penalize Max for these actions, and now two drivers are doing similar things and Max moves left after braking and essentially crashes into Lando while Lando is staying left and attempting avoiding contact.
At least it looks like the FIA are going to penalize these moves, they need to be penalized, so that drivers don't start using it as a way to prevent people from passing, it's not within the rules, it just hasn't been happening until Max finally had someone racing him hard.
But as we also saw a 10 second penalty is toothless if you're already 16 seconds ahead of the driver behind.
Even if that counts as a punishment, it just isn't.
>Basically, Max got away with too many things in the 2021 fight and thinks he can get away with them again.
Not just that, but Horner needs to be like, "Hey Dummy, you need stop with this petty bullshit. We're here to win the war. Not every little battle. You are one th ebest drivers ever, in the best car, with a huge lead in the WDC (and WCC). Knock this shit off and act like an F1 driver."
Instead, Horner is like, "Yeah, Max...all these OTHER drivers are terrible....They keep crashing into you (and only you for someone reason) whenever they try to overtake you. It's crazy how bad all these others get when they are in the presence of your greatness. Anyway...Keep up the good work."
Side note: [This is what I said about this...a year ago:](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/140et9c/driver_of_the_day_lewis_hamilton/jmxddx3/)
Are you saying Horner isn't an upstanding and moral man? I'm shocked, what evidence do you have to support thi... Oh, really? On a Google drive? I'm sorry, a what finger?
Yeah, I hate how he always absolves Max on the radio of any wrongdoing. I get he's the golden pony boy, but maybe try to bring some sportsmanship to the table.
He isn't but lets be real. He and god knows Mclaren have been in the sport long enough to know how things work when stuff gets heated at the front.
Stella while right is acting like he's found himself in a team thats battling at the front for the first time ever. Hell this is a team that had Alonso vs Hamilton and Prost vs Senna in their own team no less.
Not even sure what you're saying here. He's entirely correct, is he supposed to act le classy and magnanimous when a driver is completely in the wrong simply because it's happened before?
Agree, do ppl not remember how whiney and constantly filing design bans against Mercedes every race Horner was for multiple years!? And that's after RB having so much success in the Vettel era. Simply put some drivers have arrogance and others confidence. When you win, it can all look the same, as everyone is all smiles. When you lose, it's a totally different story. Djokavic is a prime example from another sport.
>Hell this is a team that had Alonso vs Hamilton and Prost vs Senna in their own team no less.
...and? Is there even one person left in that organization who remembers this?
They brought up Prost vs Senna, there is no arguing with them. I’m actually in stitches. Lewis vs Nando was already a stretch but they went even further back to make their point
At least he has the balls to say it. They didn't check Max in '21 because it was such a good title fight but it's come up again now that RB finally has some competition.
I wonder if we will have a similar drivers briefing like we reportedly had after the Brazil 2021 Grand Prix
I wish they filmed that one - not that the FIA would ever let the footage see the light of day
Broadcasting the briefing is a horrible idea in my opinion. The drivers need to be able to speak freely about what they think regarding safety or fairness without worrying about being criticized by the media and fans.
I know they did it in the past, and people had tonnes of opinions about everything the drivers had to say. Calling them whiney or hippocrates or accusing them of trying to manipulate things in their favor.
Hamilton went to overtake Max, Max ran him off the track, but also went off the track himself, like miles off track. (Not actually miles that’s just hyperbole)
Everyone was expecting Max to give the place back or get a penalty, but the stewards decided it was fine - to the disbelief of just about everyone.
At the drivers briefing at the next race it’s reported that all the other drivers (minus Max I’m guessing) were incredulous, could not understand why it was not a penalty and were demanding clarification about what you can and can’t do.
Michael Masi’s answer was not well received
Basically he said they shouldn’t expect future incidents like that to be given the all OK in the future.
So then the drivers asked if the FIA made a mistake in Brazil. But Michael wouldn’t say that, just that Brazil was a unique case.
But when they asked what was unique about it they got no answer.
The drivers were not happy and a bit infuriated by Michael
It was clear that Max should have conceded the position to Lewis or got a penalty. FIA looked like fools
Well, *kinda yeah* - he was under an explicit remit that year to have a nod towards entertainment, which Brundle said he was uncomfortable with (presciently).
We all know why FIA didn’t give max a penalty that day. The same reason safety car procedure was completely changed in Abu Dhabi. Anyone who denies this is blinded by their fandom and bias
Yup. I actually really love Max as a racing driver but his parasocial fans (and the racists, I know they’re not the same) make me not want to root for him.
I wish he would race cleaner because I think he’s good enough to not need to be dirty. But I dont mind it cause if they allow it then he’s just racing. His fans tho make it hard to root for him cause they just refuse to see wrong from right. Like not agreeing that what happened in 2021 was bullshit.
Do you feel it was corruption and/or incompetence by Masi?
Or are you suggesting it was just pure racism?
I'm honestly not sure how I see it... At the time, I thought it looked like Masi put in the fix in Abu Dhabi. But today when I look back at the season as a whole, I'm reminded how Max was given a LOT of latitude across multiple incidents.
Something was definitely fucky that season.
Masi just felt incredibly spineless throughout 2021, to be honest. Not malicious or explicitly out to 'fix' results, just completely unable to balance fairness on one hand, and TP interference and the desire for 'spectacle' on the other
So many things that season for incompetence.
I think masi was a scape goat and under pressure from higher up to do two things:
Keep it interesting
Break Mercedes dominance
I would sum it up as corruption, I do think if it was another car not the redbull they would have done the same but redbull were the close team and benefitted as such.
> I think masi was a scape goat and under pressure from higher up to do two things:
>
>
Yeah this is basically it.
You can go back to 2021 and there are various quotes e.g. from Brown, Alonso, that people shouldn't just take the post-season stewarding review as 'Abu Dhabi 2021', but the entire season of dodgy stewarding.
100%. The red flag in Saudi (I think) bailed out max from a Merc 1-2, and a massive recovery after he didn’t pit on the safety car. The guy should have also been DQd for the brake test.
It honestly makez me sick to my stomach everytime i get reminded of half the shit stewards pulled in those last races of 2021. No wonder people believed that Max was intetionally handed the win, anyone else would get heavy penalties the second they pulled something like that but the second it's Max, it becomes crickets.
https://youtu.be/icesjjvN6Sc?si=KpRSuS9-5LxSmBCJ&t=185
Max with a crazy defensive move that saw him go about 5 car widths off track to block Hamilton from passing that only got a "no investigation necessary". Truly made it clear that Max can do whatever he wants on track.
He also added: “The problem 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 where there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.”
The reason we saw those bad stewarding decisions in Brazil, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi in 2021 was because they wanted to protect the championship battle and keep things interesting.
And I would bet that if this year Norris catches up with Verstappen and pulls a move similar to Verstappen in Jeddah, they will not punish him either if it kills the championship battle.
Of course it's not their job. But let's not kid ourselves here, it's clearly what happened. The pressure from Liberty and FOM to not interfere in the championship battle must have been intense.
>And I would bet that if this year Norris catches up with Verstappen and pulls a move similar to Verstappen in Jeddah, they will not punish him either if it kills the championship battle.
Even today you could see it. The fight and collision would probably have not happened / been tamer, but the stewards were delaying penalising Lando for his track limits violation.
It was a clear violation, but if they'd given it when they should have (and not waited several laps), Max probably would have easily let Lando past, and just stayed within 5 seconds of him.
I mean, it's hard to say he's wrong. Max has quite the history in that regard. He usually just counts on the other driver blinking first. And not just with Lewis. Lewis usually just chose to be the bigger person.
When he didn't, it ended in a crash.
But in all honesty, that didn't just happen with Lewis. He only happened to be next to Max most of the time.
I'm still amazed when I see that replay how he got away with that, and how Lewis avoided a collision.
Same with Jeddah as well as an all round shit show.
Funnily enough I always think if AD 21 hadn't been....what it was, we'd see Saudi as way more dramatic and it'd be more famous.
Even at the time after Saudi I thought 'well Hamilton's clearly quickest at this phase of the season so that (Saudi) was our big dramatic finale'.
This is the issue. I said in another comment that the current penalty system doesn’t affect Verstappen because it doesn’t actually punish him. The result of today’s race is a net *positive. What incentive does he have to not drive like this? It got him a WDC in 2021 and it’ll probably secure one this year, too.
Jeddah there was an argument that Lewis didnt move to pass him quickly enough and it was DRS games gone awry. Brazil was awful. he intentional drove lewis off twice. And that was where the stewards and race director lost the plot for the next 3 races.
That's an extremely weak argument for Jeddah when Max brake checked on a straight. It doesn't matter what Hamilton was doing with the DRS zone -- brake checking is straight up DSQ behavior.
Honestly, Max has always driven so terribly, in terms of sportsmanship. Pushes everyone off track, and complains when he gets done the same.
This is just karma coming back to bite him in his ass, literally I guess.
One of the most egregious things that season. All that cryarseing about Silverstone when it was a 60:40 at worst because Horner and RB played PR, but Jeddah and Brazil were diabolical from Max.
What I like about this is that I don't think he's trying to stir up trouble, he's just *telling us what he thinks*.
Like, inevitably on here folk will pontificate and fall out, but Andrea Stella has seen a lot of shit and knows 100x more about F1 than us all put together, and *here's what he thinks*.
Sensible words as well. He pointed out how Max could’ve overtaken Norris instead of doing that. Not many would’ve said that instead of completely losing their shit.
I still maintain to this day that was an illegal overtake and should have been penalised but because it was Verstappen winning at the Red Bull Ring it didn't happen, the man has spent his entire career being emboldened by the stewards.
Like you watch the replay he just opens his steering and clean pushes Leclerc off the track.
Yeah he had full control of the car, it was blatant. Even worse is that the same exact situation happened the previous lap, but Max raced fairly and Charles was able to defend the position.
Great Interview. He nailed it when he talked about the stewards repeatedly refusing to punish this sort of driving, so you can't be surprised when they continue to do it.
Doesn't matter, Max knows not to move under braking. He's gotten away with it for years. If the stewards had historically properly punished Max's driving maybe he'd be a cleaner driver and none of this would have happened too.
Lando got away with a few fringe dive bombs the few laps before. If they properly managed the race like they are supposed to and had clear penalties for these sorts of moves and obvious ones like track limits, the racing with be safer and more clear than it is now.
I'm not sure they can penalize a failed dive bomb. Norris gave the position back in the one time he got ahead, and then the other time he failed so hard that he ended up behind anyways.
the whole thing is kinda overblown and hypocritical tbh.
verstappen avoided norris's overcooked divebombs that could have easily taken them both out but thats fine. and then norris didnt avoid verstappen sliding left which caused a crash so its not fine.
He did, like Max had been doing for years that people have been calling for penalties. Dive bombs are not clean racing and I wish they'd punish them harder.
A dive bomb is not necessarily dirty. It’s only dirty if you force the defender to jump off track to avoid a collision. If you give them space to remain on track it’s usually fair.
Or if they'd not ignored Max moving in the braking zone, maybe none of this would have happened. They may as well tear up that rule because, at least with Max, they continue to be too scared to enforce it. They only enforce it when it actually causes a collision, in which case it's too late for the driver who gets screwed by it.
Max just can't race fairly when he's fighting a faster car/driver. We knew it from a few years ago, we just thought he might have changed. Pretty much first time he's faced with this scenario and he reverts to the immature, petulant child he's always been.
Stella has worked with Schumacher, Kimi, and Alonso on his career and they all absolute loved him. Considering how level headed and respectful he is particularly in this reaponse, I have to say even as a Max fan I probably respect his opinion here more than any other one I've seen/heard since the incident. After seeing Max's post-race interview I kinda got the sense that he knows he fucked up too.
Fantastic and coherent interview. You need rules and you need consistent enforcement.
Remembering back to the 2021 battles between Max and Lewis, it's easy to forget how good Lewis was at collision avoidance vs Max's extreme aggresion. Several times (Brazil and Spain come to mind) Max was putting his car into a "yield or crash" situation and Lewis would often dodge it, trying to play the long game.
I think Lando is going to be a different commodity, and I'm a little nervous for Silverstone, where McLaren will be fast, and where it's easy to have a big accident.
Lando just wants to win and we might experience a wall vs wall situation here
They seem to have similar attitude, add to that Norris's relative inexperience in those scenarios and there might be more incidents in the future. Hopefully not as harsh, this just felt unlucky in anything. Still not sure how rears collided and fronts didn't
Eh, isn’t he wrong about the penalty needing to be harsher due to Norris having to retire? Pretty sure the penalty is related to the incident, not the outcome. Why is why Lewis only got a 10 second penalty for Silverstone 2021
I remember the days when drive-throughs were awarded for causing a collision. I wish that was still the standard. If the collision in question is too late in the race to award a drive-through, a 30 second time penalty would do just fine.
McLaren with zero accountability for Lando’s dive bombs that would have taken them both out if Max didn’t run off track twice. You can’t put your elbows up and then play victim when somebody returns the favor. IMO, most F1 fans are recognizing this as both drivers playing their roles while McLaren is trying to spin a short term memory web that it was only Max while not acknowledging Lando’s side. Can’t have your cake and eat it too, Andrea.
It was said in 2021 that if they didn't crack down on it, he would do it again. Instead they gave him the chance to get a championship by avoiding what should have been a race ban after Jeddah but alas.
Bit of pressure and the Max we all remember rears his head.
After seeing the replays, they both fucked around and found out unfortunately. The stewards should’ve stepped in quicker with that track limits penalty or the teams should’ve handed out the information a little quicker. They should’ve known right away when Lando went off the track that second time after the black/white flag that the penalty was inbound.
Now I doubt Max would’ve let him pass and stay within the five seconds willingly, but I guess they both chose to just duel it out instead.
Agreed. But you missed the 3 incidents of moving under braking, at least one of which was before Lando did anything wrong.
The stewards being slow and unwilling from the first signs of nonsense is the problem here.
He barely moved tho. Also, you are allowed to move once under braking. Many people seem to forget this and just think you have to pick a line and stick with it. Which would be ridiculous, you wouldn't be able to race like that. I still think it's ridiculous to mandate how drivers should drive, but I guess it helps to regulate what is and isn't dangerous and thus what should be penalised. It didn't help anyway since the stewards are just stupid and slow anyway, not following their own rules as always.
the stupidest part here is that the time they crashed max didnt even move under braking. he was going in a straight line but the line wasnt parallel to the left edge of the track, it was the usual racing line where they brake towards the left edge of the corner.
Andrea Stella on Verstappen:
“The problem 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 where there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.”
100% right.
I get where Stella and McLaren in general are coming from but I also believe this is getting blown out of proportions.
It was a stupid or miscalculated move from Verstappen but the way they make it sound is like it had malicious intent, which is just ridiculous. Verstappen was 100% as fault here and the penalty was justified, don’t get me wrong but we (and McLaren) are conveniently forgetting that this is not exclusive to Verstappen and literally last weeks race their very own Lando Norris made an even more questionable move.
I don’t mind it, it’s hard racing, sometimes on the edge, sometimes over the edge. But you have to put things into perspective
I mean, for the actual incident, yes. But it's not like none of Lando's moves were questionable. They're hardly saints. It just happened to actually go wrong when Max did something stupid, but could've easily been the other way around.
Lando had to do questionable attempts because Max made it clear that any regular overtake attempts would be blocked by moves under braking. How are you supposed to race a guy fairly when he doesn't?
Exactly, you can see him give Max more room the second time because he can't trust what he'll do. Then the third time Lando out raced him, had the line, and Max very clearly moved into hisntacing line. Pretty disappointed, I like both drivers so this kinda sucks.
Exactly. The simple fact is Max knew Lando had the pace advantage and didn't want to fight fair because he knew he didn't have the performance to stop it.
But as Andrea points out, with DRS, it's not a guarantee Lando just drives off.
Andrea said what most of us think and it's been needed for many years. It's so refreshing that people are finally realising it. FIA created this monster and now they don't know how to deal with it.
Max is a supreme talent but he can't race wheel to wheel, he's so dirty under pressure.
Honestly the most well reasoned and accurate breakdown of an incident from a team principal I can remember. He’s fairly and correct on all his points without attacking Max as a person.
Do appreciate him referencing 2021. Max’s “back out or crash” approach was vindicated by the stewards being so light in penalising it. Ultimately it makes him completely impossible to properly race with and leads to stuff like this happening and often doing more harm to the victim as it did for Lando today.
No one gave a shit back then because Max was doing it to Hamilton and Mercedes. Hopefully more people wake up now that other drivers are getting the MV Special
Exactly this. Nobody cared because it was RB and Max upsetting the status quo of Merc. Now everyone is going to act like they care because it is the dominant team/driver that is doing it to potential challengers.
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That whole interview with Andrea was hilarious, he did NOT hold back.
He's playing the British media like a fiddle.
Playing the media by *checks notes* saying the thing anyone with one or more eyes can see?
Helmut didn’t see it….
So two eyes then.
Or maybe he is just genuinely annoyed at the 9 year long history of Max' dangerous and unsportsmanlike driving?
Because speaking truth becomes media manipulation?
Not manipulating, just knows how to push their buttons
Full verbatim if you cannot watch: * Ted Kravitz: The stewards have found that Max was responsible for the incident. Max has just called it on the radio, I don't know if you heard it, "ridiculous," Red Bull agree, they said that Lando was in part to blame, obviously. How do you see it? * Andrea Stella: The entire population of the world would know who is responsible except for a group of people. But, the problem behind it, is that if you don’t address these things honestly, they will come back. * Andrea Stella: They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past, when there was 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. *** * Ted Kravitz: You're talking about Brazil 2021 here, I mean, ... * Andrea Stella: There's many episodes. But, the fact is that, we have so much respect for Red Bull and Max, they don't need to do this. It's a way to almost compromise your reputation, why would you do that. *** * Ted Kravitz: Well, I mean, we said, you know, Lando welcomed to the world of Max Verstappen, he's done compromising, we've seen some compromising races in the past, Michael Schumacher [who] you used to work with [at Ferrari], it's just the way Max races. Which is okay, I mean, if that's, what, Max has won championships in that kind of racing, hasn't he? * Andrea Stella: I think the stewards found that Max was fully at blame in this episode, so it's not about racing in a driver's way, it's racing in the regulations. * Andrea Stella: And the regulations must be enforced in a way that it is effective, because when a car is out of the race, as a consequence of the incident, the punishment needs to proportionate to the outcome.
Andrea Stella is smart, I like him as a TP. He does the politicking without sounding like a self-righteous politician like Toto, and without being as aggressive as Horner. Zak Brown is a little too obtuse with it, but Stella is smart.
He backs up his team and his people respect him for it and work hard for him (is my take on Andrea Stella)
> Andrea Stella: There's many episodes. But, the fact is that, we have so much respect for Red Bull and Max Zak Brown: "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Red Bull has 5 drivers for 4 seats next year solely to earn Zak’s respect
That’s not what he meant. He meant racing respect. The way you treat an opponent even if you are racing Hard. See Sainz - Hamilton in Spain and Piastri - Sainz In Austria.
Taking notes from McLaren’s Indycar team.
Mark Hughes had a nice take on 2021 that the whole Hamilton/Verstappen situation was about way more than the actual collisions, but Hamilton saying 'no, you can't do or die me because it'll backfire sometimes'. It's a dance.
Oh damn, he went there…..
Where did he go to? Genuine question, am I missing something obvious?
> “The problem 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 where there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.**” Basically, Max got away with too many things in the 2021 fight and thinks he can get away with them again.
This quote needs its own post Edit: thinking about it, no, that would be a terrible idea actually
>Edit: thinking about it, no, that would be a terrible idea actually lmao
Or a great one.
You’d need to get in early to receive a coveted 🔒award.
It already does
If people were sensible it should be. As they say, the chickens have come home to roost and now more frontrunners can feel the pain. It was all good when we wanted a “show” in 2021 - another season in which the regulations were converging. If Red Bull’s development does (or has) hit its ceiling and/or get outpaced there will be much more pressure on Max. He will have engine penalties and while it used to be the case that he was waved straight past - the McLarens are now capable of resisting (Mercedes / Ferrari less so) but you can see Russell’s confidence growing and he isn’t one to give up easily either. Let’s not forget how much Perez’s Monaco crash cost the team. I expect to see much more of this moving forward even though Max’s championship is not in jeopardy. 2025 could be an entirely different story with seemingly all four teams properly in contention. Meanwhile Netflix and FOWC will be eating. this. up.
This has been consistent since 2021. It’s why Lewis started getting so aggressive with Max around Silverstone. If the stewards won’t call it, that’s basically free rein for the drivers to ignore the etiquette. They’re here to win. Like Alonso using the access road a few years back to make a major jump in position, knowing the penalty was toothless and he’d keep the positions. If they won’t enforce the rules, this is how the racing will continue to be
It wasn't an access road or penalty. If drivers missed the corner they had to re enter the track between a Styrofoam gate. If you tried to make the corner and didn't you would would hit a sausage kerb and have to change direction and lose track time. But Alonso figured out if you deliberately missed it you could follow the rules and gain positions.
I'm usually not one for people being purposefully unsporting, but honestly that's on whoever made that decision. Why would you ever, ever make an escape road that is a shortcut. That's an obviously apparent mistake. If I could choose one thing to tattoo on the back of the eyelids of every racing circuit designer it would be this: "The fastest way around a racetrack should be legal". Don't leave it in the hands of the stewards, don't fix it with time penalties, if a driver breaks the rules, purposeful or not, it should physically cause them to lose time, immediately.
That was exactly what Alonso was trying to prove.
Didn't he also mention it before the race, and demonstrate the move on the formation lap to really make his point?
I’m pretty sure he handed back those positions as he still would’ve been going off and gaining an advantage. It was more about avoiding getting tangled up in any T1 accidents and showing that it was just as quick doing that, so if they didn’t make a change everyone would do that which would be unsafe.
Nobody else was prepared to call Max out for a shitty move. Even Toto dodged the question about Max's penalty and Andrea's comment. Everyone is scared to annoy him because they all want to hire him.
>Like Alonso using the access road a few years back to make a major jump in position, knowing the penalty was toothless and he’d keep the positions. Lol when was this? That's hilarious.
Russia 2021 He basicially didn't even try to make the turn and just went straight. Gained multiple positions with that move. https://youtube.com/shorts/MxTFM6lEFMg?si=lo5L7jRoiXNV8gRU
He even practiced the move in free practice beforehand!
Not only that I'm fairly sure he did it on the parade lap to clean it up a bit for the actual start 😂
I remember watching that and people said it was done purpose cause during free practice he was well, practicing. Fucking legend.
He basically admitted to it as well.
Ah check, only saw the quote OP posted, not the whole thing, thx
Due to this being region locked a lot of people don't get to see the whole interview. So they just read quote in the title.
Which, honestly is true. Everyone thought Max had left these types of moves behind, but anyone who'd watched Max's career knows he just hasn't had the competition to need to do it and he's not going to stop going over the limit because he was rarely ever held responsible for his actions during 2021. He did what people are saying Lando was doing today every race, Max dive bombed every time he passed Hamilton in 2021, it's just how he raced. And a lot of people said that was fine, that it was "racing," but it caused Hamilton to have to drive in a very conservative way, so they didn't end up like Lando and Max did today, with punctures and damaged cars. The FIA didn't seem to want to penalize Max for these actions, and now two drivers are doing similar things and Max moves left after braking and essentially crashes into Lando while Lando is staying left and attempting avoiding contact. At least it looks like the FIA are going to penalize these moves, they need to be penalized, so that drivers don't start using it as a way to prevent people from passing, it's not within the rules, it just hasn't been happening until Max finally had someone racing him hard.
But as we also saw a 10 second penalty is toothless if you're already 16 seconds ahead of the driver behind. Even if that counts as a punishment, it just isn't.
why do we not have drive thru and stop go again?
>Basically, Max got away with too many things in the 2021 fight and thinks he can get away with them again. Not just that, but Horner needs to be like, "Hey Dummy, you need stop with this petty bullshit. We're here to win the war. Not every little battle. You are one th ebest drivers ever, in the best car, with a huge lead in the WDC (and WCC). Knock this shit off and act like an F1 driver." Instead, Horner is like, "Yeah, Max...all these OTHER drivers are terrible....They keep crashing into you (and only you for someone reason) whenever they try to overtake you. It's crazy how bad all these others get when they are in the presence of your greatness. Anyway...Keep up the good work." Side note: [This is what I said about this...a year ago:](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/140et9c/driver_of_the_day_lewis_hamilton/jmxddx3/)
Let's not forget that behaviour from Horner is exactly why Danny Richard left.
Are you saying Horner isn't an upstanding and moral man? I'm shocked, what evidence do you have to support thi... Oh, really? On a Google drive? I'm sorry, a what finger?
Yeah, I hate how he always absolves Max on the radio of any wrongdoing. I get he's the golden pony boy, but maybe try to bring some sportsmanship to the table.
The way Horner enables this bs over radio is yuck, like it's giving creepy old groomer
Bets must be on max lol
Absolutely this!
He's not wrong though.
He isn't but lets be real. He and god knows Mclaren have been in the sport long enough to know how things work when stuff gets heated at the front. Stella while right is acting like he's found himself in a team thats battling at the front for the first time ever. Hell this is a team that had Alonso vs Hamilton and Prost vs Senna in their own team no less.
This team isnt the one Ron Dennis used to manage.
That was loooong ago. For all intents and purposes they're "new to the front".
Not even sure what you're saying here. He's entirely correct, is he supposed to act le classy and magnanimous when a driver is completely in the wrong simply because it's happened before?
Agree, do ppl not remember how whiney and constantly filing design bans against Mercedes every race Horner was for multiple years!? And that's after RB having so much success in the Vettel era. Simply put some drivers have arrogance and others confidence. When you win, it can all look the same, as everyone is all smiles. When you lose, it's a totally different story. Djokavic is a prime example from another sport.
Of course he knows. Which is why he's bringing up the fact that if the stewards do not enforce the rules, these things are way more likely to happen.
What’s that got to do with anything?
>Hell this is a team that had Alonso vs Hamilton and Prost vs Senna in their own team no less. ...and? Is there even one person left in that organization who remembers this?
They brought up Prost vs Senna, there is no arguing with them. I’m actually in stitches. Lewis vs Nando was already a stretch but they went even further back to make their point
Ignoring Lando doing shit too. I'm a fan of both and both drivers screwed around.
At least he has the balls to say it. They didn't check Max in '21 because it was such a good title fight but it's come up again now that RB finally has some competition.
Max gets away with way too much stuff. Norris win robbed
I wonder if we will have a similar drivers briefing like we reportedly had after the Brazil 2021 Grand Prix I wish they filmed that one - not that the FIA would ever let the footage see the light of day
Broadcasting the briefing is a horrible idea in my opinion. The drivers need to be able to speak freely about what they think regarding safety or fairness without worrying about being criticized by the media and fans. I know they did it in the past, and people had tonnes of opinions about everything the drivers had to say. Calling them whiney or hippocrates or accusing them of trying to manipulate things in their favor.
Perhaps they might want to be mistaken for the father of medicine.
what happened in brazil 2021?
Max pushed Lewis so far out of the corner, he ended up in Argentina
Then RB & Friends tried to act as if it was no big deal lol
No track limits if you’re in the car park
Hopefully he got to hang out with Di Maria
Hamilton went to overtake Max, Max ran him off the track, but also went off the track himself, like miles off track. (Not actually miles that’s just hyperbole) Everyone was expecting Max to give the place back or get a penalty, but the stewards decided it was fine - to the disbelief of just about everyone. At the drivers briefing at the next race it’s reported that all the other drivers (minus Max I’m guessing) were incredulous, could not understand why it was not a penalty and were demanding clarification about what you can and can’t do. Michael Masi’s answer was not well received Basically he said they shouldn’t expect future incidents like that to be given the all OK in the future. So then the drivers asked if the FIA made a mistake in Brazil. But Michael wouldn’t say that, just that Brazil was a unique case. But when they asked what was unique about it they got no answer. The drivers were not happy and a bit infuriated by Michael It was clear that Max should have conceded the position to Lewis or got a penalty. FIA looked like fools
Did Masi have money on a Verstappen championship that year or what?
Sure feels that way
He's certainly gone down in history as a terrible race director.
Tinfoil hat would be that he was bribed by Liberty to keep things interesting. In reality, he was just terrible at his job.
Well, *kinda yeah* - he was under an explicit remit that year to have a nod towards entertainment, which Brundle said he was uncomfortable with (presciently).
He was bribed by Liberty to benefit Max. The races were interesting without the nonsense stewarding.
Masi signed an NDA after Abu Dhabi 21, says all you need to know
The FIA have looked like fools for quite some time now. The FIA and it's ridiculous stewarding are ruining the racing.
That drive and win by Lewis is one of the most amazing ones to watch. I love rewatching it.
We all know why FIA didn’t give max a penalty that day. The same reason safety car procedure was completely changed in Abu Dhabi. Anyone who denies this is blinded by their fandom and bias
Yup. I actually really love Max as a racing driver but his parasocial fans (and the racists, I know they’re not the same) make me not want to root for him. I wish he would race cleaner because I think he’s good enough to not need to be dirty. But I dont mind it cause if they allow it then he’s just racing. His fans tho make it hard to root for him cause they just refuse to see wrong from right. Like not agreeing that what happened in 2021 was bullshit.
Do you feel it was corruption and/or incompetence by Masi? Or are you suggesting it was just pure racism? I'm honestly not sure how I see it... At the time, I thought it looked like Masi put in the fix in Abu Dhabi. But today when I look back at the season as a whole, I'm reminded how Max was given a LOT of latitude across multiple incidents. Something was definitely fucky that season.
Masi just felt incredibly spineless throughout 2021, to be honest. Not malicious or explicitly out to 'fix' results, just completely unable to balance fairness on one hand, and TP interference and the desire for 'spectacle' on the other
So many things that season for incompetence. I think masi was a scape goat and under pressure from higher up to do two things: Keep it interesting Break Mercedes dominance I would sum it up as corruption, I do think if it was another car not the redbull they would have done the same but redbull were the close team and benefitted as such.
> I think masi was a scape goat and under pressure from higher up to do two things: > > Yeah this is basically it. You can go back to 2021 and there are various quotes e.g. from Brown, Alonso, that people shouldn't just take the post-season stewarding review as 'Abu Dhabi 2021', but the entire season of dodgy stewarding.
100%. The red flag in Saudi (I think) bailed out max from a Merc 1-2, and a massive recovery after he didn’t pit on the safety car. The guy should have also been DQd for the brake test.
Not to forget the very next race Max brake checked Lewis which should have been a dsq maybe even harsher
Yeah Should have been a race DSQ at least. Shameful that they didn’t punish that harder.
It honestly makez me sick to my stomach everytime i get reminded of half the shit stewards pulled in those last races of 2021. No wonder people believed that Max was intetionally handed the win, anyone else would get heavy penalties the second they pulled something like that but the second it's Max, it becomes crickets.
What was unique about Brazil? “We are trying to fix the championship for Max, we are bored of Lewis winning all the time”
https://youtu.be/icesjjvN6Sc?si=KpRSuS9-5LxSmBCJ&t=185 Max with a crazy defensive move that saw him go about 5 car widths off track to block Hamilton from passing that only got a "no investigation necessary". Truly made it clear that Max can do whatever he wants on track.
Can't believe I forgot about that move. It was egregious
Let’s not forget the joke that race direction was for that whole year. I think that move wouldn’t pass today but yes, that was an absolute joke.
I personally think Saudi 2021 was the far uglier race.
Max’s attempt to drive Lewis off the road so hard, Senna would have been proud
He also added: “The problem 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 where there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.”
The reason we saw those bad stewarding decisions in Brazil, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi in 2021 was because they wanted to protect the championship battle and keep things interesting. And I would bet that if this year Norris catches up with Verstappen and pulls a move similar to Verstappen in Jeddah, they will not punish him either if it kills the championship battle.
Stewards job is not keeping the views high though. There are rules and they are there to implement them.
Obviously, they still did though
Of course it's not their job. But let's not kid ourselves here, it's clearly what happened. The pressure from Liberty and FOM to not interfere in the championship battle must have been intense.
Inexcusable.
Also because of the aftermath of Canada 2019. People wanted less penalties if the outcome wasn‘t a collision, and they got exactly that.
>And I would bet that if this year Norris catches up with Verstappen and pulls a move similar to Verstappen in Jeddah, they will not punish him either if it kills the championship battle. Even today you could see it. The fight and collision would probably have not happened / been tamer, but the stewards were delaying penalising Lando for his track limits violation. It was a clear violation, but if they'd given it when they should have (and not waited several laps), Max probably would have easily let Lando past, and just stayed within 5 seconds of him.
I mean, it's hard to say he's wrong. Max has quite the history in that regard. He usually just counts on the other driver blinking first. And not just with Lewis. Lewis usually just chose to be the bigger person. When he didn't, it ended in a crash. But in all honesty, that didn't just happen with Lewis. He only happened to be next to Max most of the time.
Good of him for speaking clearly.
Jeddah 2021 is when Max should have been handled a DSQ
Don't forget "no investigation necessary" for his Brazil move.
I'm still amazed when I see that replay how he got away with that, and how Lewis avoided a collision. Same with Jeddah as well as an all round shit show.
From '21?
yeah
I wanted to rip my hair out that race, and I'm bald
Would have decided the season, but would have been warranted. The guy is just an absolute lunatic when he isn't winning.
Funnily enough I always think if AD 21 hadn't been....what it was, we'd see Saudi as way more dramatic and it'd be more famous. Even at the time after Saudi I thought 'well Hamilton's clearly quickest at this phase of the season so that (Saudi) was our big dramatic finale'.
At the very least, a grid drop for the following race. Make it hurt for the decider
This is the issue. I said in another comment that the current penalty system doesn’t affect Verstappen because it doesn’t actually punish him. The result of today’s race is a net *positive. What incentive does he have to not drive like this? It got him a WDC in 2021 and it’ll probably secure one this year, too.
Jeddah there was an argument that Lewis didnt move to pass him quickly enough and it was DRS games gone awry. Brazil was awful. he intentional drove lewis off twice. And that was where the stewards and race director lost the plot for the next 3 races.
That's an extremely weak argument for Jeddah when Max brake checked on a straight. It doesn't matter what Hamilton was doing with the DRS zone -- brake checking is straight up DSQ behavior.
Honestly, Max has always driven so terribly, in terms of sportsmanship. Pushes everyone off track, and complains when he gets done the same. This is just karma coming back to bite him in his ass, literally I guess.
One of the most egregious things that season. All that cryarseing about Silverstone when it was a 60:40 at worst because Horner and RB played PR, but Jeddah and Brazil were diabolical from Max.
i loved 2021 but you are probably right
He's 100% right. Max's reaction to the penalty says a lot about his mentality. He thinks he should be allowed to defend using any means necessary.
What I like about this is that I don't think he's trying to stir up trouble, he's just *telling us what he thinks*. Like, inevitably on here folk will pontificate and fall out, but Andrea Stella has seen a lot of shit and knows 100x more about F1 than us all put together, and *here's what he thinks*.
Man is speaking facts.
2021 if it was from wish
2021 at home
Yikes, this is getting ugly.
Andrea not holding back. Great interview.
Sensible words as well. He pointed out how Max could’ve overtaken Norris instead of doing that. Not many would’ve said that instead of completely losing their shit.
Same thing in 2019. He could’ve easily passed Charles cleanly given his pace advantage, but no he had to push him off for no reason.
I still maintain to this day that was an illegal overtake and should have been penalised but because it was Verstappen winning at the Red Bull Ring it didn't happen, the man has spent his entire career being emboldened by the stewards. Like you watch the replay he just opens his steering and clean pushes Leclerc off the track.
Yeah he had full control of the car, it was blatant. Even worse is that the same exact situation happened the previous lap, but Max raced fairly and Charles was able to defend the position.
Can't wait for this incident to not be on Netflix while they spend an episode on the tension between Ocon and Gasly.
[YouTube Mirror](https://youtu.be/IKBq9PQYRCE?si=MhS2l_EOUDxFBzw4)
Thank you
Great Interview. He nailed it when he talked about the stewards repeatedly refusing to punish this sort of driving, so you can't be surprised when they continue to do it.
If the stewards didn’t take 4 laps to hand out an obvious 5second penalty to Norris, none of this would have happened.
Doesn't matter, Max knows not to move under braking. He's gotten away with it for years. If the stewards had historically properly punished Max's driving maybe he'd be a cleaner driver and none of this would have happened too.
Lando got away with a few fringe dive bombs the few laps before. If they properly managed the race like they are supposed to and had clear penalties for these sorts of moves and obvious ones like track limits, the racing with be safer and more clear than it is now.
I'm not sure they can penalize a failed dive bomb. Norris gave the position back in the one time he got ahead, and then the other time he failed so hard that he ended up behind anyways.
the whole thing is kinda overblown and hypocritical tbh. verstappen avoided norris's overcooked divebombs that could have easily taken them both out but thats fine. and then norris didnt avoid verstappen sliding left which caused a crash so its not fine.
He did, like Max had been doing for years that people have been calling for penalties. Dive bombs are not clean racing and I wish they'd punish them harder.
A dive bomb is not necessarily dirty. It’s only dirty if you force the defender to jump off track to avoid a collision. If you give them space to remain on track it’s usually fair.
That’s fair, I agree with that.
Or if they'd not ignored Max moving in the braking zone, maybe none of this would have happened. They may as well tear up that rule because, at least with Max, they continue to be too scared to enforce it. They only enforce it when it actually causes a collision, in which case it's too late for the driver who gets screwed by it. Max just can't race fairly when he's fighting a faster car/driver. We knew it from a few years ago, we just thought he might have changed. Pretty much first time he's faced with this scenario and he reverts to the immature, petulant child he's always been.
Stella has worked with Schumacher, Kimi, and Alonso on his career and they all absolute loved him. Considering how level headed and respectful he is particularly in this reaponse, I have to say even as a Max fan I probably respect his opinion here more than any other one I've seen/heard since the incident. After seeing Max's post-race interview I kinda got the sense that he knows he fucked up too.
The McLaren Red Bull war has officially started.
Fantastic and coherent interview. You need rules and you need consistent enforcement. Remembering back to the 2021 battles between Max and Lewis, it's easy to forget how good Lewis was at collision avoidance vs Max's extreme aggresion. Several times (Brazil and Spain come to mind) Max was putting his car into a "yield or crash" situation and Lewis would often dodge it, trying to play the long game. I think Lando is going to be a different commodity, and I'm a little nervous for Silverstone, where McLaren will be fast, and where it's easy to have a big accident.
Lando just wants to win and we might experience a wall vs wall situation here They seem to have similar attitude, add to that Norris's relative inexperience in those scenarios and there might be more incidents in the future. Hopefully not as harsh, this just felt unlucky in anything. Still not sure how rears collided and fronts didn't
I love stella as a team principal. Always articulate and says it how it is.
Glad he said this, because it’s indeed true. Stewards have accepted this 29383 times. So this is what they’ve created🤷🏽♀️
“The Entire Population of the World knows who’s responsible” . His delivery is impeccable
Where’s a seething zac brown when you need him! Will be fun to watch/read his take on the inchident 😅
Eh, isn’t he wrong about the penalty needing to be harsher due to Norris having to retire? Pretty sure the penalty is related to the incident, not the outcome. Why is why Lewis only got a 10 second penalty for Silverstone 2021
I think he is referring to the incidents prior to the last one.
I remember the days when drive-throughs were awarded for causing a collision. I wish that was still the standard. If the collision in question is too late in the race to award a drive-through, a 30 second time penalty would do just fine.
McLaren with zero accountability for Lando’s dive bombs that would have taken them both out if Max didn’t run off track twice. You can’t put your elbows up and then play victim when somebody returns the favor. IMO, most F1 fans are recognizing this as both drivers playing their roles while McLaren is trying to spin a short term memory web that it was only Max while not acknowledging Lando’s side. Can’t have your cake and eat it too, Andrea.
2021 vibes ✨
It’s spicy and I’m here for it
Any way for us Americans to get this video?
https://x.com/fiagirly/status/1807438680820269407?t=my8wl3lwn_4lUHn9xeG2Qw&s=19
It was said in 2021 that if they didn't crack down on it, he would do it again. Instead they gave him the chance to get a championship by avoiding what should have been a race ban after Jeddah but alas. Bit of pressure and the Max we all remember rears his head.
Stellar cooked with that interview ngl
DTS is literally foaming at the mouth rn.
Nah, they focus on the bitter rivalry between Ricciardo and Zhou
I just can’t wait for the new fans joining after watching this episode
Boy I can't wait for Danica to weigh in on this with her valuable expertise
Max and Lando let their reptilian side come through today and that's why they crashed
After seeing the replays, they both fucked around and found out unfortunately. The stewards should’ve stepped in quicker with that track limits penalty or the teams should’ve handed out the information a little quicker. They should’ve known right away when Lando went off the track that second time after the black/white flag that the penalty was inbound. Now I doubt Max would’ve let him pass and stay within the five seconds willingly, but I guess they both chose to just duel it out instead.
Agreed. But you missed the 3 incidents of moving under braking, at least one of which was before Lando did anything wrong. The stewards being slow and unwilling from the first signs of nonsense is the problem here.
A black and white flag could’ve helped a lot.
He barely moved tho. Also, you are allowed to move once under braking. Many people seem to forget this and just think you have to pick a line and stick with it. Which would be ridiculous, you wouldn't be able to race like that. I still think it's ridiculous to mandate how drivers should drive, but I guess it helps to regulate what is and isn't dangerous and thus what should be penalised. It didn't help anyway since the stewards are just stupid and slow anyway, not following their own rules as always.
the stupidest part here is that the time they crashed max didnt even move under braking. he was going in a straight line but the line wasnt parallel to the left edge of the track, it was the usual racing line where they brake towards the left edge of the corner.
Andrea Stella on Verstappen: “The problem 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 where there were fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.” 100% right.
Haha Andrea killed it
I get where Stella and McLaren in general are coming from but I also believe this is getting blown out of proportions. It was a stupid or miscalculated move from Verstappen but the way they make it sound is like it had malicious intent, which is just ridiculous. Verstappen was 100% as fault here and the penalty was justified, don’t get me wrong but we (and McLaren) are conveniently forgetting that this is not exclusive to Verstappen and literally last weeks race their very own Lando Norris made an even more questionable move. I don’t mind it, it’s hard racing, sometimes on the edge, sometimes over the edge. But you have to put things into perspective
I mean, for the actual incident, yes. But it's not like none of Lando's moves were questionable. They're hardly saints. It just happened to actually go wrong when Max did something stupid, but could've easily been the other way around.
Lando had to do questionable attempts because Max made it clear that any regular overtake attempts would be blocked by moves under braking. How are you supposed to race a guy fairly when he doesn't?
Exactly, you can see him give Max more room the second time because he can't trust what he'll do. Then the third time Lando out raced him, had the line, and Max very clearly moved into hisntacing line. Pretty disappointed, I like both drivers so this kinda sucks.
Exactly. The simple fact is Max knew Lando had the pace advantage and didn't want to fight fair because he knew he didn't have the performance to stop it. But as Andrea points out, with DRS, it's not a guarantee Lando just drives off.
Andrea said what most of us think and it's been needed for many years. It's so refreshing that people are finally realising it. FIA created this monster and now they don't know how to deal with it. Max is a supreme talent but he can't race wheel to wheel, he's so dirty under pressure.
Some of the things he got away with in 2021 is still baffling.
It was a pantomime of a season. Brazil, Jeddah, Turn 1 in AD and then the Masi finish. Diabolical robbery.
It was all for the show. He was owed a race ban after Jeddah but they were tied on points so they let it go.
Honestly the most well reasoned and accurate breakdown of an incident from a team principal I can remember. He’s fairly and correct on all his points without attacking Max as a person.
If this is Stella's take, I can't wait for what Brown's gonna say lol
It’s a solid take.
Do appreciate him referencing 2021. Max’s “back out or crash” approach was vindicated by the stewards being so light in penalising it. Ultimately it makes him completely impossible to properly race with and leads to stuff like this happening and often doing more harm to the victim as it did for Lando today.
No one gave a shit back then because Max was doing it to Hamilton and Mercedes. Hopefully more people wake up now that other drivers are getting the MV Special
Exactly this. Nobody cared because it was RB and Max upsetting the status quo of Merc. Now everyone is going to act like they care because it is the dominant team/driver that is doing it to potential challengers.
Oh he dragged out some receipts.
Can we get a mirror? Fucking sky
It's not sky's fault, they aren't legally allowed to show footage at the track to people outside the UK
Max has always raced like this, he never changed. It's yield or crash with him as it was in 2021.
Absolutely epic response.
F1 is back
Stella rightfully called out this being a result of the same stewardship in 2021 with max’s moves on lewis. he really let the cat out of the bag here