Friends off track, friends on track. That was Max Verstappen and Lando Norris before the Austrian Grand Prix. But that appears to no longer be the case from last weekend.
A needless clash with a handful of laps to go wrecked both drivers’ races and gifted George Russell a second career Formula 1 win, but what does this mean heading into Silverstone this weekend?
A botched second pitstop allowed Norris to close to within DRS range of Verstappen and the duo engaged in a multiple-lap tussle that featured several close encounters. Try as he might, though, Norris couldn’t find a way past the Dutchman at either Turn 3 or Turn 4, trying lunges at the former, but feeling aggrieved that Verstappen was moving under braking to block his moves.
Norris continued to complain over team radio, lobbying for his engineer to have a word with the race stewards. Meanwhile, Verstappen figured Norris was being too desperate in his attempts to pass. To make matters worse for the McLaren driver, he picked up a black-and-white flag warning for multiple track limits infractions, putting him one away from a five-second penalty.
A lap later, Norris dove down Verstappen’s inside at Turn 3 and ran the pair wide, making his track limits situation even more precarious. Norris was again on the radio, complaining Verstappen needed to give him the lead for going off track and gaining an advantage. Meanwhile, Verstappen and his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase questioned Norris’ tactics.
“He forced me off again,” Verstappen claimed. “It’s not clever, is it,” Lambiase replied. “He’s just divebombing. It’s not how you overtake.”
It all came to a head on Lap 64 of 71 as Norris charged up the hill to Turn 3 on Verstappen’s outside, only for the Red Bull driver to jink left, causing both drivers to endure a puncture. Verstappen then blocked Norris on the run down to Turn 4 en route to the pits and McLaren’s hopeful was forced into retirement. The stewards were quick to lay blame at Verstappen’s door, issuing him with a 10-second penalty that had little effect on his final standing in fifth place.
Was Norris a tad too hasty in a number of his manoeuvres leading up to the incident?
Yes, he was, but that by no means justifies Verstappen’s actions and his team’s response shows a lack of development and maturity.
“The problem is that if you don’t address these things honestly, they will come back,” a furious McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports F1. “They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past where there were fights with Lewis Hamilton that needed to be punished in a harsher way.”
Arguably, this is one of the first races since the 2021 season that Verstappen has gone wheel-to-wheel on equal terms, or even, against an opponent who is quicker than him. For anyone wondering if Verstappen had matured since then, they got their answer on Sunday.
The Dutchman held a 69-point lead over Norris in the Drivers’ standings ahead of lights out and a cooler head would have recognised that. Instead, Verstappen would rather risk a DNF and recycled the rhetoric that he doesn’t turn up to accept second place. This ruthlessness is in part a requirement for an F1 World Champion. Just take a glimpse at Michael Schumacher’s career. But when Red Bull’s senior members do nothing to question whether Verstappen goes too far, he will never relent from forcing rivals into a do-or-die manoeuvre. And it isn’t clean racing.
After being informed of his 10-second penalty post-race, Verstappen claimed it was “ridiculous” and said “What did he expect me to do?”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner replied: “He didn’t behave correctly there Max, so desperately unlucky.” The situation was clear, Verstappen squeezed Norris to the track’s edge with no margin to the grass and initiated contact. There’s a reason the stewards acted so fast on the matter and didn’t spend a good enough deliberating a decision as occurs when a clash is less clear-cut.
“I expect a tough battle against Max, I know what to expect, I expect aggression and pushing the limits and that kind of thing, but all three times he’s doing stuff that can easily cause an incident, and in the way it’s just a bit reckless, it seemed like a little bit desperate from his side, doesn’t need to be, he’s got plenty of wins, but a bit desperate to do what he could to not let me past,” said Norris shortly after Sunday’s race.
“I know he’s going to be aggressive so I’m in a way not surprised…. I just expected a tough, fair, respectful on the edge bit of racing, and I don’t feel like that’s what I got. There’s times where I think he goes a little bit too far, little bit of that, at the same time these things happen, I’m disappointed it ruined the race.”
So, returning to the opening question, what does this mean for Silverstone?
McLaren and Norris were Red Bull’s closest challengers in last year’s British Grand Prix and given the team’s recent progress, it’s a safe bet that it will challenge for victory once again.
If McLaren has a clear pace advantage, then Norris may just canter off into the distance, as he did in the closing stages of the Miami Grand Prix en route to his maiden victory. However, if Red Bull and McLaren are on par, expect fireworks. With Verstappen given carte blanche by his team to win by any means necessary, Austria’s clash with Norris most certainly won’t be the last.
And will the duo remain friends off track?
That remains to be seen and Sky Italia asked Norris this question on Sunday, to which he replied: “I don’t know, it will depend on him and how he explains: if he claims to be right it will be over, if he admits that he did something stupid then I will understand.”
When asked about the incident by the media, Verstappen said: “I’ll look back at it but 10s seems a bit severe for me, I didn’t feel like it was anything kind of aggressive, going on in that move. It shouldn’t [damage friendship], we’re all racing drivers, of course we don’t want to crash with each other, but when you’re fighting for the lead, it happened today, which is of course a shame.”
Two drivers with differing opinions on the matter and a governing body now under pressure to treat clashes at the front with less lenience, roll on Silverstone…
