Has Verstappen v Norris clash lit fuse for bitter 2021-esque title fight?

The coming together of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Austria turned sparks into flames in a rivalry that’s just starting.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think Max Verstappen did a huge amount wrong when he and Lando Norris made contact while battling for the lead in the closing stages of the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix…

FIA stewards hit Max Verstappen with time penalty

Thankfully, for those of you squawking with indignation at how I’ve so badly interpreted such an egregious example of bullheaded driving, I’m not a steward and, therefore, wasn’t at hand to argue against a penalty when Verstappen and Norris did come to blows as the Dutch driver desperately tried to maintain his lead.

The stewards ruled that Verstappen approached Turn 3 on that fateful lap with Norris “alongside on his left”. Before turning in, Verstappen “moved to the left, causing a collision with [Norris]” and ruled Verstappen predominantly at fault and, therefore, hit the championship leader with an inconsequential 10-second time penalty (and two penalty points).

But, watching back the replays some 100 times, it’s clear that Norris did have plenty of room on his left with which to avoid a gap that was always going to close down as Verstappen put the squeeze on.

Verstappen put his faith in Norris to give that space, but it didn’t come – resulting in the inevitable moment of conflict that their increasing on-track rivalry has threatened in recent weeks.

There’s no question that Verstappen played very close to the limit of the rules, particularly relating to the “moving under braking” regulations – although he strenuously denied having done so, saying: “For me, it was not moving under braking, because every time that I moved, I was not braking already.

“Of course, from the outside it always looks like that, but I think I know fairly well what to do in these kinds of scenarios.”

It’s worth pointing out that the stewards’ penalty to Verstappen was for causing a collision with Norris, not for moving under braking – something that could have been made an example of if there was evidence of such.

But while I don’t think Verstappen did a whole lot wrong in the defining incident, the finger can’t be pointed too much at Norris either.

He was hardly angelic during the fight, and had been trying a few cheeky divebombs up the inside of Turn 3 (perhaps explaining why Verstappen hedged his bets with his car placement on the clash lap) although there was nothing more sinful than anything Verstappen himself has performed on many an occasion, and his only contribution to the fateful clash was that he could have anticipated Verstappen’s squeeze to the left approaching the corner a little better.

It probably could be regarded as a simple racing incident, given the minor contact that just happened to have huge consequences for both drivers – with Verstappen being a smidge bit more at fault than Norris, if fault must be apportioned.

Max Verstappen/Lando Norris clash threatens long-standing friendship

But while the incident itself may not have been an example of particularly bad or malicious driving from either, the clash has finally ripped the band-aid off a situation that has been brewing since Miami, with Norris and McLaren finally starting to realise what they’re up against.

Barcelona had exposed the slight operational edge Red Bull still has over McLaren but, on a day where Red Bull themselves weren’t at their sharpest, Norris threw everything his fresh tyre-shod McLaren had at Verstappen with what was clearly the slightly faster car in the closing stages.

Unable to find a clear way past, Norris became increasingly desperate as Verstappen resisted his advances – the Dutch driver’s moves were forceful, but didn’t include sudden or extreme changes of direction.

Verstappen’s defence was strenuous, a performance Kevin Magnussen would watch with approval, but he had still kept the McLaren behind him through several attacks as he struggled around on his scrubbed mediums.

An uncharacteristically shoddy pitstop from Red Bull had brought Norris uncomfortably close and, having got within DRS range, was not to be dropped as the race entered the closing stages.

Much has been made of the existing friendship between Verstappen and Norris up to this point, with the pair sharing rides back and forth to races aboard Verstappen’s jet, as well as going to social events like concerts together. But, as has been seen on many an occasion in the past, friendships rarely survive at the top of competition. The friendship has survived until now as Norris hasn’t properly been a legitimate threat to Verstappen’s supremacy.

Austria has changed that complexion entirely. Having had to bear the light ribbing he got from Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton after pushing Verstappen onto the grass in Barcelona – a move Verstappen will have put away in his vault – Norris was determined to show he has the racecraft to match and beat Verstappen’s in Austria, while Verstappen was determined to continue his dominance of the Austrian circuit and maintain his mental stranglehold over Norris.

Interestingly, Verstappen was at pains to point out that he and Norris have not actually raced each other that often, due to the two-year age difference between them – a circumstance that he had in common with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 (a contentious season, to say the least) with Hamilton being over a decade older.

Indeed, 2021 was very much on the mind of McLaren team boss Andrea Stella when he spoke with restrained and reasoned fury to the media afterward.

“I see that the entire population in the world knows who is responsible except for a group of people [Red Bull],” Stella said on Sky F1. “But the problem behind it is that if you don’t address these things, honestly, they will come back.

“They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past when there were some fights with Lewis. That needed to be punished in a harsher way like this. You learn how to race in a certain way, which we can consider fair and square.

“[There have been] many episodes. The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max. They don’t need to do this. They don’t need to do this as a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?”

Toto Wolff, who spent that 2021 season tearing his hair out as Verstappen and Hamilton fought it out through a series of increasingly acrimonious battles, was reluctant to point to the Dutch driver as being the catalyst for the Norris incident – perhaps unsurprising, given the Austrian’s hope to tempt Verstappen away from Red Bull to join Mercedes.

“I don’t think you can take this conclusion,” Wolff said, when asked whether FIA intervention – or lack thereof – on Verstappen’s unrelenting driving during 2021 had emboldened him in his approach.

“It’s so long, from our side, we are in a different place today, and I think he is, and it takes two to tango.

“I wouldn’t see that as a big consequence of 2021 not having been managed well, to what has happened in 2024 – I don’t think there’s a correlation.”

Charles Leclerc, an immediate peer of Verstappen’s from karting, is proof enough that Verstappen can be raced with aggression without the fight ending in tears – but does this indicate that the Dutch driver’s uncompromising defence is beyond what other drivers find acceptable?

Certainly, Norris was visibly hurt after the incident, with sadness evident alongside the anger. Perhaps finally realising that Verstappen will, without hesitation, burn a friendship to the ground for victory, this clash has all the makings of a watershed moment for Norris. Has he got the same ruthless personality that will allow him to view Verstappen as an enemy and forgo their personal relationship?

Verstappen has it, as does Hamilton. Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher had it, and Nico Rosberg achieved it in 2016 (coincidentally also having a very similar clash with Hamilton at the same corner of that year’s Austrian Grand Prix). But does Norris? He’s unproven in this particular aspect of being a top-level racing driver.

Up until Austria, Norris has raced Verstappen with their friendship in the back of his mind and, consciously or not, has had that factor into his approach. When drivers aren’t friends, it gets spicy – just ask Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

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Lando Norris: I’ll lose respect for Max Verstappen if he says he did nothing wrong

Asked specifically about his friendship with Verstappen, Norris said he would “lose a lot of respect” if the three-time F1 World Champion does not at least accept some blame.

“It depends what he says, if he says he did nothing wrong then I lose a lot of respect for that,” Norris said.

“If he admits to being a bit stupid and running into me and just being a bit reckless in a way then I will lose a small amount of respect for him.”

Stella came out strongly to bat for his driver, slamming the actions of Verstappen leading to the crash, and said it’s clear an apology is required if the friendship between the two drivers is to survive.

“Obviously, when there’s a rivalry in professional sport – at the pinnacle of sport – under the pressure that these guys experience, it’s always going to be a bit on the edge in terms of the implication for the human relationships,” he said.

“But, if the drivers were able to show respect, if the drivers were able to show integrity and if the drivers were able to say, ‘Apologies, I overcooked it, I closed too much, I collided, my apologies’, I think the human relationship can continue.

“Actually, you will gain, if anything, even more respect, because you can see it’s a tough contender.

“But, at the same time, it can be somebody that can apologise. It won’t be necessarily dependent on the outcome of the incident, but it will be more dependent on the values that you deploy before, during and after, throughout their experience as a driver.

“So I don’t think this is compromised. But this is a case in which somebody will have to apologise.”

Christian Horner: Competition puts friendships under pressure

However, McLaren and Stella might be left waiting for the apology they believe is due. Neither Verstappen nor Christian Horner conceded an inch in their respective post-race media sessions, with the Red Bull boss saying he felt Norris was “getting his elbows out” during their battle and deemed it a “racing incident”.

“Relationships between drivers vary up and down the grid,” he said.

“Ultimately, there’s a respect, that’s the most important thing. Inevitably, friendships are put under pressure when you’re competing hard.”

Whether rightly or wrongly, the very best never believe they’re in the wrong – although may concede they are for inconsequential incidents and events, ie. when it doesn’t matter. It’s part of what makes them so formidable, even if the ability to admit mistakes and show contrition is the ‘right thing to do’ in the real world.

McLaren has been very out of practice with this over the last decade, and is now finally in a position where, in execution as well as technically and operationally, the Woking-based squad is going up against the razor-sharp Verstappen/Red Bull as its foe.

The gloves are now off, and this season is starting to show hallmarks of being a 2021-lite – with Verstappen now the seasoned champion waiting to be toppled.

McLaren has started to realise its potential and can be a legitimate threat to Red Bull over the season, particularly with a driver pairing both performing, with Norris facing a steep but not insurmountable 81-point deficit in the championship.

But, to have any hope of any success, Woking must be able to replicate what only Mercedes has proven it can do against an on-form Milton Keynes.

Forget about trying to maintain friendly relations with paddock buddies, which McLaren CEO Zak Brown has shown he’s willing to do with some of his comments aimed at Horner so far this year. Like what Red Bull did in 2021 when it matched Mercedes’ performance, it’s time for McLaren to go to war if the team wants its first titles in well over 15 years.

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