McLaren chief takes aim at FIA over Max Verstappen with Lewis Hamilton jibe

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has suggested that the reason Max Verstappen continues to be overly aggressive with his defending is due to the fact that the FIA didn't hand him harsher punishments for his scuffles with Lewis Hamilton during the 2021 title fight.

The two F1 icons slugged it out during a ding-dong battle for the 2021 title with several on-track flashpoints, including at Silverstone where Verstappen was sent into the Copse barrier at high speed, and at Monza, where the duo's cars were stacked on top of each other after a Turn One collision.

There was also contact between the duo in Imola and Jeddah, while at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Verstappen took to running the Brit off the road at Descida do Lago in an attempt to hang onto P1. Most of these clashes went unpunished by the stewards.

Verstappen's latest offence came during Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix when he came together with Lando Norris during a fierce battle for the race lead. Both drivers picked up punctures for their struggles, but the McLaren driver also picked up terminal damage, while the Red Bull man recovered to P5 at the chequered flag.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about the incident, Stella said: "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.

"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. The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max. They don't need to do this. They don't need to do this as a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?"

Verstappen, however, did not feel like he had done much wrong. "Of course, from the outside, it's hard to see when I brake," he told Sky Sports F1. "I know in the past it was a bit of a complaint.

"Now I always move my wheel before I brake then you brake in a straight line trajectory. It's always easy to say on the outside that I'm moving under the braking. But I think the guy in the car knows best what he's doing."