Andrea Stella opened a huge can of worms yesterday. The thing we all seem to have forgotten about for two years.
Firstly let’s remind ourselves that in 2020 and 21, Andrea was a back room figure at McLaren. Mentioned but rarely seen, hardly ever interviewed. Zak and Andreas were doing the heavy lifting in interviews and to be fair they weren’t happy about decisions. I don’t think anyone was more vocal about the FIAs lack of transparency regarding the agreement they had come to with Ferrari than Zak.
Pretty sure after Brazil 21 Zak said he felt that Max’s defence was “over the line”.
People forget in Jeddah in 2021 McLaren were frantically trying to get the stewards to confirm Lando could restart the race from the position he was in at the timing line, not when the red flag was thrown as he had slowed down to avoid a crash and been overtaken. However the stewards were too busy letting Red Bull negotiate their starting position, whilst forgetting Esteban was leading the race. They eventually confirmed to McLaren yes Lando should start further forward on the formation lap to the grid. Far too late for him to take that position.
In Abu Dhabi McLaren were prepping Lando to use his newer tyres to get past Lewis as quick as possible before Max caught them up, just stay out the title fight, when the game changed and half the grid were let through and now it was Daniel sat behind Lewis and Max. Daniel expressed some uncertainty about it all from the car. Post race Daniel, Lando and Zak all spoke about how they didn’t feel comfortable with what the FIA had done.
And then the FIA “investigated” the matter and “spoke” to everyone. And the whole F1 grid fell silent.
Since Monaco this year there has been some really questionable calls by the stewards. There seems to be a level of manipulation of results going on? But subtly. Some would maybe even argue Miami when the safety car appears to have been delayed/inexplicably missed the race leader.
I’ve seen lots of Max fans arguing that if he had known about Lando’s penalty sooner. Well firstly Max knew Lando was on three strikes and then he told the team Lando had gone off again. Max knew. Yes Austria is a short lap but 3 laps to investigate a clear track limit (it wasn’t even subtle). Which leads me to question were the stewards already looking into Max moving under braking? Were they looking at was Lando forced off the track? Were they looking at penalties for both that would effectively wipe each other’s out? If so that is clear manipulation of a result hidden behind rules.
So yes Andrea was completely justified to lay full blame at the feet of the FIA. Why would Max stop doing something he has never been consistently punished for? Had they addressed this 3 years ago Max would have had to change. Max showed in Baku in 2023 his attitude hadn’t changed when he squared up with George, effectively threatening an eye for an eye. Drivers have been highlighting this about Max since 2015. The FIA have increased the penalties this year but what have they been doing for the last three years about this? Diddly sqwat! Did the FIA mishandle the situations prior to lap 64? Absolutely.
The difference is Andrea did it calmly and articulately. He didn’t call Christian Horner any names. He didn’t accuse Max of cheating or being a dirty driver. He literally told the FIA look at the mess you have made. You finally get wheel to wheel driving and your inaction comes back to bite you.
No offence George having someone who was 15 seconds off the pace inherit the race is not what F1 is about. Andrea knows that and it’s not what he wants the sport to be.
McLaren were never staying quiet about what was going on. They may begrudgingly accept the FIAs decisions at times but they were one of the few teams who have raised concerns since 2020 onwards consistently. The difference is yesterday EVERYONE took notice of what they said.
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