Oct.24 (GMM) The ‘tape-gate’ row that began on the Austin grid rolled into Mexico City, but Max Verstappen is staying well clear of the noise – and of McLaren’s growing internal strain.
Red Bull was fined after one of its mechanics ignored marshals to tear away a strip of tape McLaren had fixed to the pitwall to mark Lando Norris’ grid position. Since then, questions over sportsmanship have dominated paddock chatter.
“Anyone who needs this kind of tape should use it,” Verstappen said. “I don’t need it.”
Williams’ Carlos Sainz, formerly of the Red Bull family, was less forgiving. “Obviously someone saw a competitive advantage by trying to take that away from him,” said the Spaniard.
“You’re not going to get a headline from me here, but I know values in sport and what I would do if that was me and my team.”
Norris, for his part, insists he only saw the humour.
“It was quite amusing to watch them try and fail to take it off,” he told Bild. “I didn’t even need it, but we put it on the wall just in case.
“It wasn’t the first time they’d tried to remove it,” the McLaren driver revealed. “That’s why we made it so strong – like those Formula 1 parking stickers you stick on your windshield and they never come off.”
Far more pressing for McLaren is Verstappen’s late surge in the championship. After clashes and finger-pointing in Singapore and Austin, Oscar Piastri confirmed that internal “consequences” for Norris have now been “removed”.
“I think there is a degree of responsibility from my side in the (Austin) sprint,” Piastri said. “We’re starting this weekend with a clean slate for both of us – just going out and racing to see who comes out on top.”
Verstappen, now just about within striking distance of both McLaren drivers, insists he’s taking the run-in in his stride.
“We’re not too stressed about it,” he said. “We’re just trying to enjoy it, trying to get the most out of it until the end. If it works, amazing. If it doesn’t, we can still be very proud of the upswing in performance that we showed.”
He also brushed off Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko’s claim that the thrill of the chase has unlocked “two-tenths” of pace in Verstappen alone.
“No, I don’t agree with that,” Verstappen said. “It’s more fun coming to race weekends like this than when you know you have no chance of winning. But I always try to maximise everything when I’m in the car.”
Marko had further suggested Verstappen might be easing up on his new GT3 racing project to stay focused on F1, but the Dutchman rejected that too.
“It was planned a long time ago,” he explained. “It was just the first opportunity. Nothing has really changed in how professionally I approach my race weekends.”
Bookmakers now put Verstappen’s title odds as high as 40 percent, yet Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies isn’t interested in numbers. “We don’t do these kinds of calculations,” he said. “It’s just that simple.”
And while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claims Verstappen holds the “psychological” advantage as the hunter, Fernando Alonso disagrees. “I don’t think so,” the Spaniard told reporters.
“The championship can change completely in an instant. Lando could also win a race by 30 seconds and then Max would be out of the title fight again.
“Max is driving fantastically, there’s no doubt – but ultimately the car will decide who becomes world champion.”
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