McLaren team boss Andrea Stella asserts that despite Max Verstappen‘s surge in the drivers’ championship, the British team will adhere to the Papaya rules. The current constructors’ world champion wants to continue treating Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri equally, even after the Dutchman’s sprint victory in Austin. Verstappen’s ‘hunt’ for the world title is not surprising to Stella: ‘Max is Max’.
Max Verstappen, with his sprint victory in Austin – and the eight championship points he earned for this win – has once again moved closer to the McLaren duo in the drivers’ championship. The Dutchman is now 55 championship points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri, while Lando Norris only has a lead of 33 points. Yet, McLaren still does not choose a first driver.
“We constantly evaluate our approach, but we are far from being able to say that we are going to favor one driver over the other,” confirms team boss Andrea Stella in Austin. “Certainly not as long as the chances for both drivers are realistic. This is the way we want to race. This is how we approach racing, we want to remain fair and we want to treat both drivers equally. So this is the situation at the moment.”
‘Max is Max’
Is Stella then not at all afraid that Verstappen could still run off with the title? According to the Italian, the threat from the world champion is not new. “Max is Max, and Red Bull is Red Bull,” the team boss tells F1.com. “We are talking about a super champion, the reigning world champion of the past four seasons. We have never been so naive as to say that Verstappen was not hunting for the drivers’ title. We continue to focus on ourselves.”
