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SPIELBERG, Austria — Over the past three seasons, the combination of Max Verstappen and the Red Bull car has proven so powerful that the rest of the Formula 1 field has rarely really challenged it.
And in the last few races that has changed.
Lando Norris took the win in Miami, closed down Verstappen late in the race in Imola and could have won in Canada and Spain, but small mistakes cost him the win. At no point did he really raced Verstappen. Their friendship, sharing flights and padel courts, has remained strong.
But on Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix the inevitable happened: Verstappen and Norris really raced, raced hard and it ended in a collision that will test their mutual bonds.
“It's just a bit reckless,” Norris said in the media pen after the race, dejected that his chance of victory had been snatched away. “It looked like (it) was a bit desperate on his part.”
GO DEEPER
George Russell wins Austrian GP after Verstappen and Norris collision
How Red Bull got Verstappen into trouble
It was a crash that shouldn't have been likely in the first place. Verstappen was in complete control until his pit stop on lap 51 of 71. His only minor obstacles were traffic, the occasional lack of blue flags as he rounded cars, and a slower pit stop.
But a second, excruciatingly slow pit stop by Red Bull, the slickest and fastest crew on the F1 grid, left Verstappen in trouble. A stop that normally takes around two seconds took 6.5 seconds due to a problem with the tightening of the left rear wheel nut, which caused Norris’ buffer to be swept away.
One fight, two different points of view 🗣️🗣️#F1 #AustrianGP photo.twitter.com/5aUbIoTVG4
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2024
Verstappen was calm in the media after the race, seemingly more disappointed with Red Bull's performance than the collision itself. He called it a “terrible” race and said the team “did a lot of things wrong today,” citing the strategy that left him battling traffic and “disastrous” pit stops. “If you give yourself a free lap time, six seconds above those two pit stops, then it is of course a race again,” said Verstappen. “That's why we put ourselves in that position.”
The added complication for Verstappen was that he had a lightly used set of medium tyres instead of the fresh set Norris was able to use, giving the McLaren the grip advantage. As they weaved through traffic, Norris could easily sit within DRS range of Verstappen and start planning where to make his move.
Aggression meets aggression
“If the need arises and the time comes to race him, I will do so 100 percent.”
Norris' promise in an interview with The Athletics at Suzuka was always going to be tested at some point. And he quickly made up for it with his swipe at Verstappen.
On lap 59, Norris made his first attempt to overtake Verstappen at the top of the hill in Turn 3, a wide corner with enough room for a steering wheel on the inside. Norris briefly got ahead, but went off track and Verstappen came back heading towards Turn 4. Verstappen immediately warned his engineer about the off-track move, noting that Norris had already been given a black and white flag, a final warning for exceeding the track limits. As a fourth strike, this would result in a five-second penalty, which was only handed out after Norris was out of the race.
Norris claimed he had been dropped by Verstappen and continued to attack fearlessly. Verstappen complained on the radio that Norris was 'dive bombing', and in the media he described the moves as 'just sending in too late and hoping the other guy stays out and you make the corner, which wasn't the case'. the case.”
Norris kept up the pressure as the stewards investigated the track limit violation and tried the same corner again four laps later. This time the Red Bull went off track. He stayed ahead, which led to a complaint over the radio from Norris, who had already spoken to Verstappen about illegally moving under braking (moving sideways while decelerating). Verstappen said he had been forced off the track. Classic games from both.
And then, on lap 64, it happened. Verstappen hit the inside and pinched Norris, his car drifting slightly to the left. The sideways collision left both cars damaged and with a long crawl back to the pits. Verstappen recovered to finish fifth, while Norris was forced to retire. Mercedes’ George Russell took the win, followed by Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz.
Racing hard or over the limit?
Before his current dominant run, Verstappen made his name in Formula 1 with a tough, no-holds-barred approach to wheel-to-wheel racing. When a driver fights him, it's no surprise what he gets in return.
“I expect a tough fight against Max, I know what to expect,” said Norris. “I expect aggression and pushing the boundaries and things like that. But all three times he does things that could easily cause an incident.' He added that he was “in a sense not surprised” by the collision, but was disappointed that he did not race “hard, honestly, respectfully and on the cutting edge” in the battle for victory. “There are times when I think he goes a little too far,” Norris added.
Verstappen denied crossing a line and claimed he hadn't moved under braking. He noted Norris' “dive bombs” and called the stewards' 10-second penalty – they said Verstappen was “predominantly at fault” for his left-hand drift – “a bit severe”. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner described it as a racing incident. “Max is a tough racer and they know that,” he said.
Norris's challenge has revived Verstappen's dormant appetite for hard racing. (James Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Verstappen is a hard racer, yes. That's partly why this would always happen. He hasn't been pushed like this since the height of his battle against Hamilton in 2021. Now Norris and McLaren have a package that can not only challenge Verstappen, but beat him, leading to a return of these more aggressive on-track tactics, which This is more likely to result in incidents like this.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said the stewards should have shown Verstappen the black and white warning flag if he moved under braking, as this would have made the Red Bull driver “much more careful in closing the door on Lando.”
“It's a great fight, but there's no need to act so desperately,” Stella said. “You don't have to think that the world will end when the overtaking maneuver of the car behind is completed.”
Was it inevitable? Horner used that word twice after the race. “You could see this building for maybe a couple of races,” he said. “At some point, something was going to come close between the two.”
That's not how Verstappen wanted to think. “It's never how I thought about things,” he said. “But in close battles sometimes things happen that you never want to happen.”
Will Norris and Verstappen clear the air?
The clash in Austria is a turning point in the competitive and personal relationship between Norris and Verstappen. At the moment, they seem to be a step ahead of the rest of the Formula 1 pack, as was clearly visible in Sunday's race.
The pair have shared many cool-down rooms and press conferences over the past 12 months, regularly joking and bantering. Now there is a tension that showed little sign of easing in the heat of the immediate aftermath of the collision. Norris wasn't interested in being the one to extend an olive branch or clear the air. “It's not for me to say,” he said. “It's up to him to say that.”
Verstappen said there would be a chance for them to talk, but it was “not the right time” and it was “better to cool down.” He said they did not plan to travel back to Monaco together, as they have done after other races this season.
Verstappen said he hoped it would not damage their relationship. “We are all drivers, you don't want to crash into each other,” he said. “When you're fighting for the lead, it's always tough battles. It happened today. It's always a shame. I'm annoyed, he's annoyed. I think that's fair.”
Verstappen is right that there will be a good time for reconciliation. You can already predict the shared Instagram post of the two laughing together, a sign to the world that everything is okay. Friends again.
But as long as the margins between Norris and Verstappen on the track remain so small and we see such intense battles more often, their dynamics will continue to be tested.
Which, after so long without that kind of competitive advantage, is an exciting prospect for F1.
(Main photo: Rudy Carezzevoli, ERWIN SCHERIAU/APA/AFP via Getty Images)
