SILVERSTONE, England — Any chance that the friendly rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Formula One would turn into something more serious ended with a phone call between the two men earlier this week.
The long-time friends and sim racing teammates collided while battling for the lead in the Austrian Grand Prix last Sunday, prompting a furious response from McLaren afterwards.
Norris suggested Verstappen had been “reckless” and said he would lose respect for his friend if the three-time world champion did not apologise. An irate McLaren team principal Andrea Stella had suggested Verstappen had never been properly punished for alleged transgressions in 2021 against Lewis Hamilton.
Arriving at Silverstone, the stage seemed set for a war of words that would continue, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo joking about how extreme he thought the narrative around the incident would be.
“I guess they probably blew it all up because it’s obviously a battle for the lead. ‘Before friends, now enemies!’ That’s probably what’s happening,” Ricciardo said with a laugh. “I can only imagine.”
It turns out there is no simmering feud between Verstappen and Norris.
“The only thing that mattered to me was to maintain my relationship with Lando because we are great friends,” Verstappen said on Thursday. “For me, after the race, I thought we have to let things calm down because the emotions were at their peak.”
The two spoke on Monday and “concluded that they really enjoyed their battle,” Verstappen added. After having time to reflect on the clash, Norris also changed his mind.
“Honestly, I don’t think he needed to apologise,” Norris said of Verstappen. “I think some of the things I said (to the media) after the race were just out of frustration. A lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotion and I probably said things I didn’t necessarily believe, especially later in the week. He doesn’t need to and I don’t expect him to apologise. I don’t think he should apologise.”
The rival drivers did not understand what was going on.
“It seems like people are criticising Max a little bit,” Ricciardo said. “It seems like it’s probably a little bit exaggerated.”
“I think it’s his way of racing. He obviously gives his all on the track, and that’s what a lot of fans admire about him, but do I think he’s matured since the beginning of his career? Absolutely. It’s not like he’s in these situations all the time.”
“It’s tough (racing), but you’re also fighting for a win, so you’re not just letting someone pass. I think contact, it can happen probably nine times out of ten without any consequences.
“From what I saw, nothing seemed out of line. Was it too risky? Probably. But was there anything dangerous or reckless? At least, from what I saw, no.”
Speaking at one of Thursday’s first press sessions, Nico Hulkenberg echoed the view that most other drivers would repeat throughout the paddock.
“To be honest, for me, Max wasn’t doing much,” Hulkenberg said. “He was driving more or less in a straight line. That was the race for me. There was hardly any contact… it was the lightest contact. I don’t think there could be less contact… I felt like it was all messed up and dramatic.”
Perhaps remarkably, given the debate that followed among fans, there was no dissenting opinion suggesting that Verstappen’s driving at the Red Bull Ring had crossed the line. Several drivers pointed out that the championship leader had been penalised for the incident, having been deemed “majority” responsible for the collision, and had been given a ten-second time penalty.
When asked about the issue, most drivers suggested that the FIA’s complicated regulations were the biggest problem, as they have muddied the waters on what is and is not acceptable in close battles.
“In my opinion, it is clear that you can move to defend and then come back, but you always have to leave the width of a car up to the white line for the other car to adapt,” said Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. “That’s the rule.”
“I really struggle with the fact that we have to keep adding rules to the racing side. I think there are so many already, if you read the rulebook about what you have to do if you pass on the inside, what you have to do if you defend on the inside, what you have to do if you attack on the outside, what you have to do if you defend on the outside; it’s a whole bunch of different rules that are already super detailed and specific, that I struggle to follow exactly when I’m driving a car at 300 km/h, because at that speed you can’t think about all those rules.
“Let’s say I don’t want any additional rules. The rules are clear enough and a decision has already been taken by the stewards (with Verstappen).”
Fernando Alonso, Sainz’s compatriot, agrees: “The rules, we forget them at the moment. We are in the heat of the battle. Sometimes we fight for points, sometimes for podiums, sometimes even for world championships.”
“I fought for the world championship title five times in the last race, in the last part of the season. How can you think about the rules at that moment… you try to overtake, you try to defend, you try to be fair, but you have to trust the other drivers. That’s probably how we always race.”
Should drivers race differently against Max?
Stella’s comments on Sky Sports after the race regarding the rivalry between Verstappen and Hamilton in 2021 have caused quite a stir, with many pointing to the long list of incidents involving the Red Bull driver. It has reignited an old conversation about whether drivers should adapt when they find themselves wheel-to-wheel with him.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has been competing with Verstappen for as long as anyone. A viral video of the two drivers from their karting days shows Verstappen fuming during an on-track collision between them. A baby-faced Leclerc instead calls the incident “just an incident” between the two.
Asked if he approaches the battles with Verstappen differently, Leclerc replied: “No, you get to know the drivers more and more, and with Max, he’s probably the driver I know the best on the grid because we’ve been battling each other for a very long time, since 2010 I think.
“I think you know more or less how each driver is going to react, fight, defend or attack you. However, I don’t fight them differently, any of them. I will always try to fight them the same way. It mostly depends on the situation you are in, and of course if you are fighting for P6 in the championship and Max is 100 points ahead, you might not fight him as hard.”
“But when a victory is on the table, I will always give my all with whoever I am fighting against.”
Ricciardo said everyone on the grid knows that you can only get past Verstappen with a very well executed overtake.
“It doesn’t necessarily change the way you fight him,” he said. “You just know you’re going to have to land a really good move and make it stick, and I think Lando learned that on Saturday.
“He thought he probably had it, and Max said, ‘No, not today.’ You live and you learn. Obviously, Lando made some bold moves on Sunday, and he also had his elbows out. Unfortunately, I think the result was what it was.”
The Australian added that everyone on the grid knows how hard Verstappen will attack them in those moments and they should react in kind.
“Nobody in this sport wants to be the one who gets bullied,” Ricciardo added. “You want to stand up to everybody. Obviously, it’s your reputation that depends on it. When people come to see you on the track, you don’t want them to think: ‘Oh, this guy is going to be easy for me’.”
“So you always have to have your elbows out, to a certain extent. We know Max has always had his elbows out since day one, and I think it’s just natural in his DNA that he’s a tough runner. It’s not something he really has to dig deep for. It’s just the way he runs. You know it’s kind of unconditional with him, that you’re going to have an uphill battle.”
What now? While the friendship between Verstappen and Norris appears to have survived the flat tyres, flying carbon fibre and carefree TV statements of the Austrian Grand Prix, many in the paddock expect the tight battle between McLaren and Red Bull to degenerate into similar scenes in the future.
“They’re both going for the win, so it’s going to be emotional,” Williams driver Alex Albon said. “It’s in the moment and they’re both fighting for the win, so I think it’s going to impact their relationship to some extent. Especially as McLaren are going to be fighting for the win more and more.
“We could even see the same thing this weekend and for the rest of the year. It’s quite natural that when drivers are constantly in the same positions, in first and second position, they have more chances to clash.”