Lewis Hamilton planted his flag in the sand over Andrea Stella’s comments from last weekend in Austria, stating that he doesn’t agree that Max Verstappen overstepped the mark during their battles in the 2021 season. This was met with a joke from Lando Norris, who suggested that his view would have been different ‘two or three years ago’.
Hamilton and Verstappen shared one of F1’s most iconic title fights during the 2021 campaign, but there were several close calls and instances of contract, most notably in Brazil, Silverstone, Imola, Monza and Jeddah. In many cases, the Red Bull man was the aggressor, but he was rarely punished by the FIA.
In Austria last weekend, Verstappen again found himself in a contentious battle, but this time with another Brit. The Dutchman collided with Norris while fighting for the victory at the Red Bull Ring, giving both cars punctures and picking up a 10-second time penalty for his troubles.
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After the crash, McLaren boss Andrea Stella was furious. “The entire population of the world would know who is responsible, except for a group of people.” he raged. “But the problem behind it 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. You learn how to race in a certain way, which we can consider fair and square. [There have been] many episodes.”
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These comments were pitted to Hamilton ahead of his home race at Silverstone but, perhaps surprisingly to some, the seven-time world champion jumped to his former title rival’s defence. “I don’t agree with that, no,” he hit back.
Norris was also quizzed over his team principal’s outburst. “I’m sure Lewis would have agreed with it two years ago or three years ago,” he replied. “100 per cent. There were definitely certain things. There were definitely a few moments.”
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Further explaining his view, he continued: "I'm always going to stand up for what Andrea said. I think Andrea's got a very good amount of sensibility with how he talks and things he talks about. So, definitely, I think certain parts are true. I do agree with Andrea.
“But, yeah, certain things are always different when you're a little bit in the moment. Sometimes just clarification of how he says things. Because there's always certain things with how you pronounce things and stuff that might change too. But on the whole, I agree with what Andrea says.”