F1 Pundit wants Red Bull senior management 'called in for a chat with the stewards' after the Max Verstappen-Lando Norris collision

F1 commentator David Croft offered his view that the FIA should chat with Red Bull's senior management regarding their defense of Max Verstappen following his incident with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion and the McLaren driver collided on Lap 64 of the Austrian GP last weekend for the race lead.

The contact damage caused punctures to their tires, with Norris's proving to be fatal for his race while the Dutch driver crawled back into the pitlane and ultimately finished P5 behind Lewis Hamilton.

The stewards laid the blame on Verstappen's shoulders as they gave him a 10-second penalty for his defensive action against Norris before the collision. While many agreed with the penalty, Red Bull team boss Christain Horner termed the punishment 'harsh' while also adding that Norris could have avoided the contact.

On his latest appearance on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, David Croft said:

“I’d like to see Christian Horner, Jonathan Wheatley, and Gianpiero Lambiase called in for a chat with the stewards when they get to Silverstone. The Red Bull team - obviously protecting their driver, because any team would do that - made out like it was all Lando’s fault, and Max had been sinned against.

“I don’t think that was the case. You could argue Lando should’ve had his car there, but Max definitely moved in those braking zones and caused the issue, as far as I saw it."

Max Verstappen gives his verdict on Lando Norris collision at the Red Bull Ring

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that he and Lando Norris agreed on '99% of everything' about their collision last weekend and would continue to race hard against each other in the coming races.

As per F1.com, the 26-year-old said:

“We agree with 99% of everything, so I think that’s a lot already. Naturally, I always said to Lando, when you go for moves up the inside, outside, you can trust me that I’m not there to try and crash you out of the way, same the other way around, because we spoke about that as well.

“There’s always a human reaction when someone dives up the inside or outside that you have a bit of a reaction to it, but I felt everything that I did was nothing massively over the top."

Verstappen compared his driving style to designing an F1 car and reflected that if "you try to go to the edge of the rules, maybe you find some grey areas here and there as a car, and that’s the same as how you race, otherwise, you will never be a top driver and you will never succeed in life anyway.”

Max Verstappen currently sits 81 points ahead of Norris in the Driver's Championship after 11 races and three Sprints.