Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has slammed the criticism directed at Max Verstappen by his McLaren counterpart Andrea Stella following the championship leader’s collision with Lando Norris during the Austrian Grand Prix.
After five one-two finishes in seven rounds, Verstappen and Norris were again waging a tight battle when their jostling reached a fever pitch on lap 64 at the Red Bull Ring.
While trying to defend the race lead, Verstappen made contact with Norris at Turn 3 — the impact leaving both cars with a puncture.
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While Verstappen was able to fit a fresh set of tyres and press forward towards a fifth-placed finish, the damage to Norris’ car was too extensive and he was forced to retire from the race.
Speaking afterwards, Stella claimed Verstappen’s aggressive approach had got out of hand following his hotly-contested title race with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in 2021 and the squabbling that ensued.
“You learn how to race in a certain way, which we can consider fair and square,” he told Sky Sports F1.
Horner said Stella’s remarks were groundless, instead pointing to the tension between Verstappen and Norris that was “building” since the Chinese Grand Prix.
“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,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“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.
“He was punished in 2021 if he did something wrong just as Lewis, who he was racing so hard that year, was for things he did wrong.
“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.”
Norris, who was also extremely frustrated with Verstappen’s driving, claimed the three-time defending world champion moved under braking several times to safeguard his position before squeezing his MCL38.
Making matters worse, Verstappen also forced Norris onto the grass as they limped back to the pits.
In response, Horner stated that Norris was finding it difficult to compete with Verstappen and his ruthless technique.
“Certainly, from Max’s side, he’s not going to change,” he said.
“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.
“Max is a hard racer — he’s probably one of the hardest racers on the circuit and everybody knows that if you’re going to race against Max, he’s going to give as good as he gets.”