"Once you have a few moving under braking [incidents] there should have been a flag": McLaren boss wants better FIA intervention in the future battles

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has claimed that the incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris wouldn't have happened if the moving under braking had been flagged by the stewards. The British driver went toe-to-toe against the three-time world champion in Austria and made contact with him on Lap 64 of the main race last weekend.

Norris and Verstappen both had a puncture in their tires after a collision at Turn 3 and the former had to retire due to the damage, while the latter continued with the race and finished P5. Norris and his team had complained about the Dutch driver's defensive maneuvers, claiming that he was moving under braking.

While speaking to Sky Sports on the FP1 broadcast, the McLaren CEO gave his take on the incident and mentioned that it could have been avoided if the FIA and the race stewards had given a black and white flag to Max Verstappen. He said:

"Had that been flagged earlier than maybe the incident that happened wouldn't have taken place. So once you have a few moving under braking [incidents] there should have been a flag, ultimately a penalty, and maybe that small touch they had wouldn't have happened in the first place."

He also added that he and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella "will address those [concerns] to ensure the rules are consistently enforced".

McLaren CEO gives his take on Lando Norris's learning from the Austrian GP

Zak Brown stated that Lando Norris was aware that the fight at the front in F1 was 'tough' and would want to avoid getting into similar situations in the future.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the American said:

"He knows it's pretty tough out there and needs to just put himself in a position to make sure that doesn't happen again. But more 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 until someone tells Max that what he is doing is outside the regulations, I don't blame Max." he added.

Brown insisted that Max Verstappen "is driving at the limit, he's a world champion, so until someone tells him what he is doing isn't correct I wouldn't expect him to drive any differently."

The Red Bull driver was given a 10-second penalty for his part in the collision at the Red Bull Ring but managed to extend his lead over Norris. He revealed ahead of the British GP weekend that he and the McLaren driver had spoken and cleared out the issues and their relationship as friends off the track hadn't changed.