Günther Steiner has returned to criticize McLaren over their “fair” management of the Drivers’ Championship.
The former Haas team principal took aim at McLaren’s handling of the championship battle, calling the team’s fairness “stubborn” and suggesting they should focus on helping Lando Norris.
When Oscar Piastri was leading the standings, Gunther Steiner had the same opinion and advised McLaren to back the Australian fully. However, approaching the penultimate race of the year, McLaren has not changed its approach and remains committed to its ideals.
The double disqualification of the Woking team in Las Vegas, however, put the championship lead at risk, with Max Verstappen now level on points with Oscar Piastri. Only 24 points separate the two second-place drivers from Norris at the top of the standings.
Despite the major setback and Max Verstappen continuing to threaten the title, McLaren has insisted it will not change its approach, continuing to support both drivers equally in the fight for the championship.
Gunther Steiner’s criticism
“No, there’s no reason to do that,” Andrea Stella replied when asked if anything would change “in driver management” after Las Vegas. “We’ve always said that, as long as the mathematics don’t say otherwise, we would let both drivers fight for the final victory, and that’s how it will be in Qatar.”
Gunther Steiner, however, has a very different view, and his harsh criticism of McLaren’s “stubborn” approach to the championship fight was swift.
“They need to support him [Norris],” the former team principal countered on The Red Flags podcast. “Otherwise, I mean, he doesn’t stand a chance. If Oscar takes a point from Lando, that would be… Wow. If Oscar is leading the race, Lando is second, and they don’t let him pass, I’d be shocked.”
“How fair do you want to be? Knowing that Lando now has an advantage, but it’s not a comfortable advantage for the beast [Verstappen] coming up, it’s like saying: ‘Do we want to be eaten by the beast or do we help one of them?’ How stubborn can you be?”
Max Verstappen praises McLaren’s fairness
Max Verstappen, on the other hand, called McLaren’s approach of letting both drivers compete for the title “perfect.”
“It’s perfect. I don’t think you could do better than letting both of them race. Why suddenly say that Oscar is no longer allowed to compete?”
“I mean, if they told me that, I wouldn’t have shown up! I would have told everyone to go to hell,” the Dutchman added. “I know I’m level on points with Oscar. There’s still a lot to do.”
“But I think it’s right that they’re free to race and that we can have a great battle all the way to the end,” concluded the four-time world champion.
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