Christian Horner claims McLaren’s Andrea Stella’s comments over Max Verstappen result of ‘not being in such a position before’

Christian Horner has backed the Red Bull star Max Verstappen repeatedly over the Austrian GP collision.

Christian Horner claims McLaren’s Andrea Stella’s comments over Max Verstappen result of ‘not being in such a position before’

Christian Horner, Andrea Stella, Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)

Max Verstappen‘s collision with Lando Norris at the Austrian GP brought immense backlash towards the former. Multiple people including McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believed the Dutchman was at fault. However, Red Bull boss Christian Horner had showcased faith in Verstappen over the incident. Since then, the 50-year-old has also responded to Stella’s claim of the incident being the 26-year-old’s fault.

Andrea Stella reckoned that the collision between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris was due to the overseen penalties in the 2021 season. However, Mercedes intervened and noted that they had no correlation with the incident and Lewis Hamilton declined any relation as well. Christian Horner broke his silence over Stella’s untrue claims of the incident.

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Christian Horner backed the Red Bull star over the incident and labeled the penalties as unnecessary. Regardless, the stewards declared their decision granting two penalty points as well for Max Verstappen. Horner reckoned that emotions ran high during such a crash out on the track. However, Andrea Stella hadn’t been in the seat of the stewards and wasn’t qualified enough to make these claims.

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But obviously there's always a lot of emotion running high after a race, and I can only imagine it's not a position Andrea has been in before, so maybe there were some high emotions running.
Christian Horner said in a Sky Sports interview.

Andrea Stella claims Stewards had a ‘tough job’ in Max Verstappen’s collision with Lando Norris

Andrea Stella didn’t hold back from commenting over the incident which he believed was caused by Verstappen. Although the Dutchman received multiple backing against the penalty, the Stewards’ decision was final. Hence, the 26-year-old retained the 10-second time penalty and also the penalty points.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

However, Stella did reckon that the Stewards had a tough job to do during such incidents. Additionally, the stewards had to monitor all the moves made by Verstappen and Norris at the crash site. Hence, the governing body had to monitor what was going on inside the drivers’ heads while they both crashed with each other.

But the FIA, the stewards, the race director, they do a tough job. We recognise the difficulties in which they operate. They have to monitor, they have to understand what is in the head of the best drivers in the world — these drivers know how to do things, they know how to hide things, and they know how to play with the limits.
Andrea Stella said, as reported by planetf1.com.

McLaren will continue their great in-form performance for the remainder of the 2024 season. The competition hasn’t been any closer than this since the beginning of the ground-effect era. Hence, the end of the season could showcase a great rivalry for the championship win this season.

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