The end of the 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix was horribly familiar to motorsport purists, those who believe the world’s best drivers should not crash into each other. But it was once again thrilling for many other observers. Because it was F1 2021 again.
There are similarities between Red Bull driver Max Verstappen taking on McLaren driver Lando Norris at Turn 3 of the Red Bull Ring and so many moments from Verstappen’s campaign against Lewis Hamilton three years ago.
This year ended with a focus on unacceptable defending – after Verstappen’s Turn 4 maneuvers in Brazil went unpunished and led directly to his actions in the race of shame that was the first visit of F1 in Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday in Austria, it was a defensive action by Verstappen that ultimately earned a penalty, following his repeated runs towards Norris in the braking zones during their two previous engagements at the same location.
All included controversial attacking moves from Norris given the McLaren driver’s origins with a large DRS speed gap. But these were masked by the extenuating circumstances of Verstappen’s aggressive defending. Oh, so Silverstone 2021 and Hamilton aren’t giving up ground to Copse.
And the Verstappen/Norris Austria crash followed a botched Red Bull pit stop with Verstappen fuming on his team radio – at Monza 2021 as well.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, a constant voice of calm and sanity in a year when so many of her fellow team bosses have disgraced themselves, summed up the situation.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, retires in the pit lane after contact with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, while battling for the lead
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“The problem is, if you don’t address these issues honestly, they will come back,” Stella said.
“They came back today because they were not treated properly in the past when there were fights with Lewis that should have been punished more severely.
Verstappen acted the way he did last Sunday because of how he has approached fighting in F1 in the past.
Hours after the crash, he was still saying: “I honestly think I left a car’s width on the white line.” The moves were also reminiscent of his late braking tactics from early in his F1 career, which led to the famous “Verstappen rule.”
F1’s racing rules have been changed since 2021, with much-needed clarity brought to many of the things Verstappen was doing.
His safety car restart tactics in Abu Dhabi in 2021 (and Bahrain and Jeddah in 2022) have been banned, and much more precise details are now given on where drivers should place their front wheels at key moments of moves and when they should leave enough space to attack their rivals.
All of this has combined to put Verstappen at fault for Norris’ crash. But McLaren believes more needs to be done to eliminate the earlier defence as well.
That is not to say Norris was wrong to cynically overstep the limits of the track – some would have done so desperately as at Turn 3 when he left the pits after his second stop and at Turn 1, apparently in his hasty chase – as he pushed to catch Verstappen when he realised a win was on the line. Nor that his first attack came from too far out.
“But he adapted and Verstappen didn’t. »
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battle for the lead
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
This is just one of Verstappen’s innate characteristics. He is completely inflexible. The lack of action in 2021 has clearly strengthened his resolve. But what F1 saw on Sunday was another of the markers it says it won’t give up, but obviously does.
Take the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix for example, where Verstappen later denied sending a message after Red Bull’s only humiliation in Singapore last year. Red Bull team member Christian Horner denied the claim, revealing that he “was really motivated and he said, ‘I want to win the race by 20 seconds'”…
Verstappen went into the weekend in Austria with a 69-point lead over Norris. He didn’t need to defend so hard.
But, as his hyper-aggressive drive towards Hamilton at the start of 2021 makes clear, with echoes of the tactics of other controversial F1 greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher early in their careers, he was clearly sending a message to Norris.
And he got one in return. Norris stays straight against the outside line of Turn 3 when they collide. He doesn’t move over the kerb like Verstappen did against Carlos Sainz and Leclerc here last year – all inside car movements are illegal.
Norris quickly understood that the only way to fight Verstappen was to give his best. Perhaps he always knew it, given what F1 experienced in 2021.
He did so immediately because – even though Norris has claimed to be in title contention in 2024 after his near-miss in Barcelona – the points deficit means he can afford to take risks in a way Hamilton could not at the start of 2021.
The other element of this saga is how it brushes aside suggestions that Verstappen “drove with great maturity” after his 2021 battle. That’s how Horner put it during the 2022 French GP.
This theory was based on the fact that Verstappen did not collide with Leclerc that year. Still, it was surely clear to Verstappen what the best 2022 concept car would be once the RB18 could shed that understeer-inducing excess weight and Ferrari was sure to implode against the elite Red team Bull. He just didn’t need to be so aggressive, even if he hadn’t decided to change.
This argument has always been fragile. This was proven in Brazil in 2022, when there was another unnecessary crash to stay the course, this time again with Hamilton. And later in that race, Verstappen refused to help Sergio Perez in his doomed attempt to finish second in the 2022 standings. This allowed the internal team tensions that Red Bull had worked so hard to quell in the public in a spectacular way.
Then, in 2023, Verstappen called Russell an “asshole” for running with exactly the Dutchman’s uncompromising style in the Baku sprint.
It is rather shameful how quickly Verstappen pointed out his Red Bull team’s failings in that final Austrian GP pit stop and their clumsy balance change on the tricky hard tyres. Moreover, he highlights how this brilliant track layout fuels controversial tactics from those prepared to use it to their cynical advantage.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, chat in Parc Fermé
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
GPS tracking data shows Verstappen releasing the accelerator and braking later than Norris in every case except in their initial clash where Norris came out – and even then it’s very close.
This suggests that Verstappen was moving slightly before braking, and is why it doesn’t make sense – like Schumacher/Jerez 1997 – that he was penalized for his actions. But in any case, it’s the impact it has on Norris, already in the braking zone, that counts.
And this is where the rules reappear in this already highly toxic debate. The FIA did not react after the F1 events in Brazil in 2021, where the spectacle of F1 clearly took priority over sporting purity.
What will he do now? If nothing, Norris has already shown that he will not back down either and that inevitably there will be further contact.
Exhilarating for some, despairing for others.