McLaren boss calls for immediate action after Norris-Verstappen incident in Austria

McLaren boss Zak Brown has given his thoughts on last weekend's incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix. Speaking to Sky Sports the American CEO said that the FIA needs stricter rules to better punish such incidents.

In the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen and Norris fought a hard battle for the lead of the race. After some failed overtaking attempts, the pair came together and both suffered a puncture. After heading to the pits for new tyres, only Verstappen was able to continue his way and finish the race. Norris's car was too severely damaged and thus the Briton had to abandon his Austrian Grand Prix effort.

Read also

F1 reveals name of upcoming Brad Pitt film

Brown gives his thoughts on the clash between Verstappen and Norris

After the race both drivers and their respective fanbases had a lot to say about the clash. In Silverstone Norris revealed that he and Verstappen spoke about the incident and that everything was OK. That seemed to be the end of the matter, but Brown decided to add a new chapter to the saga.

"I think more of the responsibility is on the stewards to be more consistent in their policing of the regulations. Also, a little unfortunate that all of us teams are privy to what we see on the data and maybe don't encourage our drivers because you know, until someone tells Max that what he's doing is outside the regulations, I don't blame Max. He's driving at the limit, he's a world champion. So, until someone tells him what he's doing isn't correct, I wouldn't expect him to drive any different, so I think the issue is really on pit wall and getting some more consistency around our stewarding", said Brown.

"All these drivers race each other very hard so I wouldn't expect that to change. We just need better enforcement of what the rules are, but I expect Lando, Oscar, Max, and all the drivers out there to race each other as hard as they're allowed to", the McLaren CEO added.

'Enforcing the rules'?

What does Brown mean by a better enforcement of the rules? "I thought Anthony Davidson on your show did a fantastic job in a very articulate manner demonstrating what's moving under braking. Had that been flagged earlier then maybe the incident that happened wouldn't have taken place. So, I think after you have a few moving under braking there should have been a flag and then ultimately a penalty and maybe that small touch they had would have never happened in the first place", the American concluded.