Comments from Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase referencing “childish” team radio messages during the Hungarian Grand Prix were not directed at the driver himself, according to Christian Horner. Verstappen complained that Lewis …
Comments from Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase referencing “childish” team radio messages during the Hungarian Grand Prix were not directed at the driver himself, according to Christian Horner.
Verstappen complained that Lewis Hamilton had moved under braking when the pair collided at Turn 1 late in the race, leading to a response from Lambiase – known widely as “GP” – who said: “I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio. Childish.”
Horner insists Lambiase was not calling Verstappen childish himself, even if the insinuation was that entering into a back-and-forth could be perceived that way.
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“I think GP at that point wasn’t referring to Max, he was referring to others on the radio complaining about penalties,” Horner said. “So I don’t think GP at that point was in reference to Max. Others are obviously goading for penalties, because obviously the stewards are listening to the radio as well.
“They’ve been together for eight years and yeah there’s things that we could have done better in the race, but it’s something that we’ll talk about as a team.
“Max was frustrated. Which you can understand — he has a very direct line of communication with his engineer. That’s something that they’ll discuss between the two of them.
“Everybody sees that we need to find more performance, and everybody’s working hard to do that. We’ll have whatever discussions [required] behind closed doors.”
Verstappen had been taking part in a sim race in the early hours of the morning before Sunday’s race, as he has in the past, and Horner says he has no concerns about the driver’s preparations.
“Look, he knows exactly what’s required in a grand prix and we trust his judgment … I think people draw conclusions, Max knows what’s required, he knows what it takes to drive a grand prix car and to win grands prix and be a world champion. As a team we always work as a team and whatever discussions of how to improve will always not take place through the media.”
Red Bull had introduced an upgrade at the Hungaroring that still couldn’t keep it on terms with McLaren, and Horner admits work is needed as the threat to its constructors’ championship lead continues to grow.
“We have to look at all the data now that we have it, and look at obviously where we need to optimize, where we’re not getting the performance that we obviously want to achieve. McLaren obviously have a lot of pace at the moment, they had a big score, and we need to start scoring big points from next weekend onwards.”
With Sergio Perez recovering to seventh place from 16th on the grid after a crash in qualifying, Horner hopes the drive leads to a cleaner weekend for the Mexican in Belgium, but suggests it wasn’t enough to guarantee his future with the team.
“That was probably Checo’s strongest race since China I would say, so he should take some confidence out of [Sunday’s] race, if he’d have qualified more in position he’d have been in a much more competitive position. [Qualifying] is something that has to change.”
Race stewards have opted to take no further action after the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Verstappen was attempting to overtake Hamilton down the inside into Turn 1, but locked up as the pair …
Race stewards have opted to take no further action after the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was attempting to overtake Hamilton down the inside into Turn 1, but locked up as the pair approached the corner and his left rear hit Hamilton’s front right. The Red Bull was launched into the air by the contact and Verstappen felt Hamilton had moved under braking, but the stewards disagreed, despite making a note of the Mercedes driver’s involvement.
“Car 1 approached the turn faster than on previous laps (due to DRS) and braked at the same point as previously,” the stewards’ decision read. “The driver of Car 1 argued that Car 44 was changing direction under braking. The driver of Car 44 stated that he was simply following his normal racing line (which was confirmed by examination of video and telemetry evidence of previous laps).
“It was clear that Car 1 locked up both front wheels on the approach to Turn 1 prior to any impact occurring but missing the normal cornering line for a typical overtaking maneuver.
“The driver of Car 44 stated that this was a racing incident, while the driver of Car 1 argued that this was a case of changing direction under braking.
“The Stewards do not consider this to be a typical case of ‘changing direction under braking’ although it is our determination that the driver of Car 44 could have done more to avoid the collision.
“Accordingly we determine that no driver was predominantly to blame and decide to take no further action.”
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Prior to the decision, Hamilton had already clarified his belief that it wasn’t a serious incident, but was unhappy with Verstappen’s claim of moving under braking.
“From what I can remember, obviously we passed a backmarker,” Hamilton said. “I got to the braking zone, and then Max appeared to overtake the car behind me, so I moved over to defend. I left enough room in the inside, but Max locked up, and he was going a different trajectory to me. I was going towards, around the corner, and he came shooting across.
“It felt like a racing incident. It’s easy to make mistakes like that, and so I don’t feel there should be any hostility. But of course, from his side, there always will be.”
Max Verstappen says any critics of his strong radio messages to Red Bull “can all f*** off” as he was left annoyed by the team’s strategic calls in the Hungarian Grand Prix. McLaren secured a one-two but Verstappen slipped from third on the grid to …
Max Verstappen says any critics of his strong radio messages to Red Bull “can all f*** off” as he was left annoyed by the team’s strategic calls in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
McLaren secured a one-two but Verstappen slipped from third on the grid to finish fifth, partly due to a late collision with Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen was having to try and pass Hamilton for third on the road having already cleared Charles Leclerc in the final stint, but was annoyed that Red Bull put him in positions to need to make overtakes and conceded track position twice through the pit stop phase.
“A tough [race], of course. We didn’t have the pace to fight McLaren today, but then I think we could still have had a P3,” Verstappen said. “But the wrong strategy calls put me on the back foot where I constantly had to fight people, try to overtake, but it didn’t work.
“It was really hot. As soon as you get close to cars, the tires overheat and basically all the advantage you have with the tires is not working anymore.
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“Of course I’m annoyed, but I’ve been annoyed before. Sometimes you press on the radio to voice your opinion and that’s what I did today. I’m hoping that maybe the second pit stop would be a better call, but it wasn’t. For me, that is not distracting when I’m driving. Of course I’m annoyed, but you also then focus back on what you have to do and that’s of course control the car.”
When it was put to Verstappen that some of his radio messages — including one to his race engineer that said, “No mate, don’t give me that bulls***. You guys gave me this f***ing strategy, OK? I’m trying to rescue what’s left. F*** sake” — were deemed by some as going too far and disrespecting the team, he replied: “They can all f*** off.”
Verstappen was also unhappy at the incident with Hamilton at Turn 1, saying it was a case of moving under braking, despite the stewards disagreeing and later taking no further action.
“I got a lot of s*** thrown at me in Austria where people say I’m moving on the braking, blah blah blah,” he said. “I’m positioning my car in the initial movement and then I keep it straight. But today, under braking, he just kept turning to the right, and that’s why I also locked up because I was going for the move, but I see the car on the outside just keeps coming at me. Otherwise, we would have crashed already before but I had to stop the car, and that’s why I had to lock up.”
Max Verstappen fears Red Bull is now chasing other teams rather than setting the pace more often than not, after qualifying third at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Red Bull won all but one of the races in 2023 but has already seen McLaren, Mercedes and …
Max Verstappen fears Red Bull is now chasing other teams rather than setting the pace more often than not, after qualifying third at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Red Bull won all but one of the races in 2023 but has already seen McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari pick up victories on five occasions so far this year, including in four of the past seven rounds. After being kept off the front row by the two McLarens in Budapest on Saturday, Verstappen says he’s enjoying the fights but feels Red Bull often finds itself playing catchup with at least one other team each weekend.
“I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition,” Verstappen said. “At the moment, I feel like we are chasing and having a few more difficult weekends, but I don’t back out of a fight. We’re just in a bit of a tricky situation, I guess.
“The whole weekend, I think we have been a little bit behind, and I think that was also the case in qualifying. I tried to make it as close as possible, but unfortunately just not enough. A bit difficult to pinpoint why that is.
“I would have liked a bit more grip, but it’s not there at the moment. P3 is still very close. I just hope that for tomorrow, of course, the car is good in the race, and at least that we can follow them and see what we can do there.
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Red Bull introduced an upgrade package at the Hungaroring this weekend, and Verstappen says he can feel an improvement from the new parts, but the end result shows where it stands in the pecking order.
“They work, but we’re still not first, right?” he said. “We need more, it’s as simple as that. I think looking back at my qualifying, I was very happy with the laps, but balance wise, everything is really on the edge. I’m pushing as hard as I can, and then you have little moments here and there.
“I feel like I probably push harder than I did last year, but [having these great lap times is just not coming anymore]. I guess it just means that we are a bit slower, so we have work to do, simple as that.”
Verstappen also explained why he climbed out of his car during the red flag in Q3, rather than joining the queue of cars trying to get out for one final run.
“I didn’t want to drive anymore. I had no tires, they were used, so I was never going to improve. There was no point for me to be in the pit lane waiting.”
Max Verstappen will have to take a power unit penalty at some stage of the current Formula 1 season as a result of problems suffered earlier in the year. The championship leader had to take a new power unit during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend …
Max Verstappen will have to take a power unit penalty at some stage of the current Formula 1 season as a result of problems suffered earlier in the year.
The championship leader had to take a new power unit during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend after an issue in Friday practice. Following the decision to take a new power unit on Sergio Perez’s car at Silverstone — with the Mexican already starting at the back of the grid — Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says at some stage there will be a similar penalty for Verstappen.
“I’m sure at some point we’ll end up taking an extra engine for Max,” Horner said. “It’s just a question of when you choose strategically to do that. So we’ll work with Honda on that. Inevitably, we will take a penalty at some point in the year.”
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Verstappen has extended his championship lead to 84 points over the past five races despite only winning two of those, and Horner believes the fluctuating form that has seen four teams winning in 2024 is down to getting performance out of different tire compounds.
“Lots of data and information to take out of that, to understand where these big fluctuations [come from],” Horner said, “because at different points in time, different cars looked quick. One minute, it started off as Mercedes, then it looked like McLaren had everything under control, and then suddenly, second half of the race, Max started coming back and very nearly won it. For the fans… a fantastic race. But obviously a lot to try and understand where the fluctuations are coming from.
“I think it’s all about these tires. I think it’s all about the tire working at a certain point in time, certain condition, whether it’s hot or cold. Different cars working the tires in different ways, and you saw an extremity of that as a circuit [Silverstone] obviously went from damp to wet to damp to back to dry.”
Despite the difficulty of trying to understand the competitive order and fight off challenges from multiple teams from a Red Bull perspective, Horner admits it’s a scenario that is good for the sport as a whole.
“I think Formula 1 can’t be in a better place at the moment. If you look at the last five or six races, we’ve had Lewis [Hamilton], we’ve had Lando [Norris], we’ve had Max, we’ve had Charles Leclerc… It’s moving around,” he noted. “And the only one that’s managed to be there consistently, has been Max. So I think the sport, you can see by the crowds that it’s delivering and so on, and I’m sure Lewis’s win was a very popular win in front of a home crowd.”
Max Verstappen was only targeting a spot in the top ten after sustaining heavy damage to his floor in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, so he says he was surprised to secure fourth on the grid. Red Bull had already seen Sergio Perez slide out …
Max Verstappen was only targeting a spot in the top ten after sustaining heavy damage to his floor in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, so he says he was surprised to secure fourth on the grid.
Red Bull had already seen Sergio Perez slide out of qualifying at Copse in Q1 when Verstappen also ran wide at the same corner when the session resumed, bouncing through the gravel at high speed. While he managed to advance to Q2, he says the damage was significant and took a lot of work from Red Bull to repair it as the session progressed, ultimately helping him to reach Q3 and qualify on the second row.
“From Q1, that off, it was just super unlucky,” Verstappen said. “I came out of [Turn] 7, heading towards Copse, and it started to rain, so I knew that the people in front of me didn’t have that rain patch. They were on slicks, and I knew in Q1 we needed that slick lap in, because you never know if it’s going to rain more and the session is over.
“I tried to keep the speed up. I did slow down knowing it was raining on my visor, but it still snapped on me. Then I had to keep it out of the wall going off-line, but…had to take the gravel which ripped the floor apart. [I was missing] quite a few bits on the car, even though I do think the team did a great job trying to recover some of the bits and tried optimize the balance front to rear. That basically ruined our qualifying.
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“[With the damage that we had, I was happy to be in Q3 already]. To be P4 is probably a bit of a positive surprise.”
Verstappen starts behind an all-British top three at Silverstone on Sunday and admits his task is harder with a pair of quick Mercedes drivers, along with Lando Norris, ahead of him.
“I would like to be in the mix, naturally,” he said. “First of all, I need a new floor! That would help. I hope it can be an exciting race. Now we are probably a bit more on the attack, instead of starting first or second, but that’s fine.
“The people around me, we’re all very even on pace, I guess. I do think McLaren is always very quick in the race and looking after their tires, but I hope we can be in that mix, and make it difficult.
“I’ll do my best tomorrow to have a good fight with them. Today was not our day with Q1 being a bit unlucky. Hopefully…tomorrow we have a good battle, between all the teams. That will be great. Naturally I know the top three, they want to win at home, and hopefully I can make it a bit more difficult.”
There was only ever going to be one storyline dominating Thursday at the British Grand Prix, and while it involved two drivers, the rest of the grid was always going to be dragged into the debate. The battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris …
There was only ever going to be one storyline dominating Thursday at the British Grand Prix, and while it involved two drivers, the rest of the grid was always going to be dragged into the debate.
The battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Austria had led to some strong comments from the McLaren side on Sunday night, and a similarly robust response — as well as a defense — from Red Bull.
Verstappen had largely stayed out of it at the time, but with just three days between race events and a chance to find out how the situation had developed at Silverstone, there was plenty of anticipation as media day got underway.
Yet that wasn’t a view as widely shared by the rest of the Formula 1 grid as you might expect.
“It was aggressive racing, but I think it was blown out of proportion in my opinion,” Alex Albon said. “I think it was questionable more the first move where Max moved under braking the first time. I don’t think he really moved under braking in the one where they made contact, it was just heading more towards a straight line, going more towards the left. Definitely more you guys [media] enjoying it. The reality of it was just pure, hard racing.
“They are both going for the win so it’s going to be emotional. It’s in the moment and they are both fighting for victory, so I think it will play an impact on their relationship to some degree. Especially as McLaren are going to be fighting more and more for victory.
“Could even get the same action this weekend and for the rest of the year. It’s just natural when drivers keep finding themselves in the same positions, in first and second, they are going to have more chances to bang wheels.”
Albon says it’s also no surprise that Norris was fighting so hard trying to find a way past the Red Bull, adding: “Every driver would. I don’t know any driver who would be in with a chance to win a race and kind of not put it on the line. We are all very similarly programmed.”
Albon’s sentiments were shared by Daniel Ricciardo — who collided with Verstappen in Baku in 2018 when they were teammates at Red Bull — but felt the actual incidents in Austria were not worthy of significant focus.
“I watched the incidents, or the battle, but I haven’t seen anything of the aftermath in terms of what’s been said, what hasn’t been said,” Ricciardo said. “Like the moving under braking, I have an understanding of what I should do and shouldn’t do.
“You look at it, it’s hard, but you’re also fighting for a win, so you’re not just going to wave someone by. I think the contact, that can happen probably nine times out of 10 with no consequence. It was also, they’d been going it back and forth, maybe the angle was a bit awkward, Lando ended [his] race. I think the outcome was probably bigger than what was actually happening on track.
“What I saw at least, nothing seemed over the top. Was it pushing the edge? Probably. But was anything dangerous or reckless? At least from what I’ve seen, no.”
Ricciardo says the way Verstappen races has been the same since he joined F1 and believes that analyzing the incident in slow motion isn’t always fair. However, he agreed with Albon that a fight should be that intense if it’s for a victory.
“You know that, you have to expect that. But… I don’t even want to spotlight Max, I think when you’re fighting for a win, you fight for a win. Are you going to fight harder than 15th place? Honestly, yes. Because it’s just how it is. I think it’s to be expected.
“I’m not saying whether everything was correct and by the book — maybe some things were pushing it, but again, they’re going to talk about it, because it’s for the win, and as I said, they’ll probably try and create some enemies out of two kids that get along.
“But I think honestly, it’s good that there’s a hard battle for the lead. Unfortunate it ended that way for them, but that’s how it goes.”
“I think it’s frustrating that it’s always going back and forth with rules,” Magnussen said. “Maybe they just have to make it more free. At the end of the day, he [Verstappen] got a penalty, which I guess was correct by the rules, but at the end of the day, he got a natural penalty with his puncture, so it didn’t pay off for him to drive the way he did in that moment.
“I just think there is a natural sort of dynamic to racing. If you let the drivers race for free, they will race hard, but at the end of the day you want to be finishing races. You want to be taking care of your car. That kind of stops the drivers from doing too-crazy things.”
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Carlos Sainz pointed out how challenging it is for drivers to remember all of the ways that a battle will be judged based on where they are positioned in the fight.
“In my view it is clear that you can move to defend and then come back, but always leave one car’s width to the white line so the other car fits,” Sainz said. “That’s the rule. I really struggle with the fact that we need to keep adding rules to the racing side of it.
“I think there’s so many already; if you read the rulebook about what you have to do if you overtake on the inside, what you need to do if you defend on the inside, what you need to do if you attack on the outside, what you need to do if you defend from the outside… It’s all a different set of regulations that is already super-detailed and specific, which I struggle to follow exactly when I’m driving a car at 300kph. Because you cannot think at that speed about all those rules.
“Let’s say I don’t want any further rules; the rules are clear enough. And there was a decision taken on the stewards’ side already.”
While it has been suggested that Norris had to race in a forceful way against Verstappen because of how aggressive the Red Bull driver can be, Charles Leclerc — who likened last weekend’s clash to a similar one he had with Verstappen in 2022 — says he still fights against each of his rivals in the same style.
“You get to know the drivers more and more,” Leclerc said. “And with Max, he’s probably the driver that I know most on the grid as we have driven against each other from a very long time — since back in 2010, I think. You know more or less how each driver is going to react or fight or defend or attack you.
“However, I don’t fight them in different ways, any of them. I’ll always try and fight them in the same way. It mostly depends on the situation you are in, and of course if you are fighting for a P6 in the championship, and Max is 100 points ahead, you might not fight him as hard. But when a win is on the table, I will always go flat out with whoever I’m fighting with.”
Encouragingly, Verstappen said he and Norris have agreed to fight just as hard with each other if faced with a similar scenario in future. So while there might not have been fireworks off-track as the British Grand Prix weekend got underway, there could be some on it come Sunday.
Max Verstappen says his only focus after the clash with Lando Norris in Austria was protecting their relationship rather than who was in the right or wrong. Norris was attempting to pass Verstappen for victory at the Red Bull Ring but faced a strong …
Max Verstappen says his only focus after the clash with Lando Norris in Austria was protecting their relationship rather than who was in the right or wrong.
Norris was attempting to pass Verstappen for victory at the Red Bull Ring but faced a strong defense from the three-time world champion, before the pair touched and both picked up punctures. Norris said afterwards that he didn’t feel like he received a fair fight and expected an apology from Verstappen, while McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was outspoken about the way the Red Bull driver defended and has been allowed to race by the FIA.
“I don’t give a s**t about that,” Verstappen said of the criticism. “I go home, I live my life. Like I said, the only thing that I cared about was my relationship to Lando.”
On Thursday at the British Grand Prix, Norris admitted he no longer felt an apology was warranted from Verstappen, who said they discussed their battle as soon as the possible once the initial emotion had died down.
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“I’m not going to compare drivers, because that doesn’t make any sense anyway. For me, the only thing that I cared about is maintaining my relationship with Lando, because we are great friends,” Verstappen said. “After the race, I said we have to just let things cool down because emotions run high.
“We immediately spoke on Monday, and I think we came to the conclusion that we actually really enjoyed our battle. We both looked at the incident — it was such a silly little touch that of course had great consequences for both of us, and a bit more for Lando with how the puncture then evolved.
“But we like to race hard. We’ve done this for many years — not only in Formula 1, even in online racing where we’ve had a lot of fun together — and these things, they have to carry on because that’s what we like to do, and I think it’s great for Formula 1 as well.
“I just said, ‘Let’s calm and let things cool off a bit, look at the footage.’ That’s what I did with Lando. That’s the only one that I care about, because whatever anyway else said, that’s not for me. Everyone can have an opinion. I only look at the relationship of things, and my relationship with Lando of course in that case.”
While Norris still feels there are aspects of Verstappen’s driving that need to be clarified by the FIA — backing Stella’s criticism of what he claims is a byproduct of a lack of action in the past — Verstappen says the pair were still largely on the same page when talking about the battle.
“We agreed with 99% of everything. That’s a lot I think already,” Verstappen said. “And naturally I said to Lando, ‘When you go for moves up the inside, outside, you can trust me that I’m not there to crash you out of the way.’ The same the other way around, because we spoke about that as well.
“Naturally there’s always a human reaction when someone dives up the inside or outside, that you have a bit of a reaction to it. But I felt everything that I did was nothing massively over the top.
“Of course, like how you design the car, you try to go to the edge of the rules. Maybe you find some gray areas here and there. And that’s the same how you race. Otherwise you will never be a top driver and you will never succeed in life anyway.”
Verstappen added that the pair have promised not to change their approaches to how they race each other in future.
“We go at it flat out! That’s what we agreed to,” he said. “Because that’s what we like to do and that’s what’s good for Formula 1 as well.”
Lando Norris says he no longer believes Max Verstappen needs to apologize to him for the contact between the pair that ended his race in the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision after drifting …
Lando Norris says he no longer believes Max Verstappen needs to apologize to him for the contact between the pair that ended his race in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision after drifting left into Norris on his outside under braking for Turn 3 at the Red Bull Ring, a corner that had seen the pair battling for a number of laps. Norris was unhappy with the way Verstappen was defending and at the time said he felt he didn’t get a fair fight, and that any talks would need initiating with an apology from the Dutchman. On arrival at the British Grand Prix, however, he changed his stance.
“Honestly, I don’t think he needed to apologize,” Norris said. “I think like some of the things I said in the pen after the race was more because I was frustrated at the time. A lot of adrenaline and emotions, and I probably said some things I didn’t necessarily believe in, especially later on in the week.
“It was tough. It was a pretty pathetic incident, in terms of what ended both of our races. It wasn’t like a hit, it wasn’t like an obvious bit of contact. It was probably one of the smallest bits of contact you can have, but with a pretty terrible consequence for both of us, especially for myself.
“Yeah, he does’t need to. I don’t expect an apology from him — I don’t think he should apologize. I thought it was, as a review, good racing. At times, maybe very close to the edge, but we’ve spoken about it and we’re both happy to go racing again.”
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Norris does, however, want the FIA to clamp down on moves under braking.
“I think it was still very clear that it was happening,” he said, referring to moving under braking. “It’s a tricky one. Max isn’t going to want to crash — he’s not going to want to ruin his own race or his own chances. So I think yes, there are definitely things I need to do slightly differently. I don’t think he’s going to change too much; I don’t think I’m going to change much.
“Could we have avoided the crash? Definitely. Is there something I could have done? I easily could have used more curb. But there’s things from both sides that I’m sure we wanted to do better or in a slightly different way.
“On the whole, avoiding an incident from moving under braking is the biggest part of it. There could very easily be an incident that comes from such a thing, and I think if anything to be very careful of, it’s something that could happen.
“So that’s just something for the future that the stewards and FIA need to be aware of, that something could easily go wrong. So I think to a certain point, you’re defending, you’re being aggressive, and that’s OK. But there’ll be a point when there is a limit, and I think that just needs to be defined in a slightly better way.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella claimed the battle with Verstappen led to incidents that could have been avoided if addressed during the 2021 title battle that also involved Lewis Hamilton, and while Hamilton disagreed with Stella’s comments, Norris backed his boss.
“I’m sure Lewis would agree with it two years ago or three years ago! 100%,” he said. “There were definitely a few moments especially. I think Andrea’s got a very good amount of sensibility with the things he talks about.
“Certain things are always different when you’re a little bit more in the moment… but on the whole, I agree with what Andrea says.”
Do you remember when the 2024 Formula 1 season was looking like it was going to be really boring? Back when the new Red Bull looked like it had moved the goal posts compared to the rest of the grid once again, and Max Verstappen took four dominant …
Do you remember when the 2024 Formula 1 season was looking like it was going to be really boring? Back when the new Red Bull looked like it had moved the goal posts compared to the rest of the grid once again, and Max Verstappen took four dominant victories from the first five races…
It was a time when Verstappen utilized his expertise to open up a commanding championship lead, and then he responded to challenges coming from multiple directions by winning far tougher races in Imola, Canada and Spain.
Now things are different. Lando Norris is consistently knocking on his door, and Verstappen has to get used to having a proper rival again.
He had to repel attacks in the Sprint in Austria, too, to extend what was a 71-point advantage going into Sunday’s main grand prix. But for the first time in a number of years, it was at that point Verstappen appeared to really get his approach wrong.
Aggression has always been a huge part of his driving style, and he’s never liked to give up a position easily. But he also spoke in recent years of simply picking up the best result on offer and accepting when there are days that he might not have a race-winning package.
The problem in Austria: he clearly had a race-winning package for so long during the weekend, but it suddenly disappeared in the final stint for a variety of reasons.
Verstappen was complaining about the tires suddenly not performing as he expected in the middle of the race and already saw one pit stop not go smoothly before his second — called slightly early to match with the timing of McLaren’s stop and reduce any risk of being caught out by a Safety Car — was even slower due to a stuck left rear wheel nut.
All of those factors combined left Norris a little over 2s behind a frustrated Verstappen, and with the benefit of new medium tires to the Red Bull’s used set. The tire advantage allowed Norris to get within DRS range — so powerful in Austria he was unlikely to be shaken off again.
The battle raged on lap after lap before the inevitable happened under braking for Turn 3. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images
But this race was different to previous ones when Norris had opportunities to come back at Verstappen. The Red Bull seemed dominant; this was a race that looked his to win for so long. With a big Dutch contingent as always at the Red Bull Ring, the idea of being overtaken and beaten was not palatable.
“It seemed like a little bit desperate from his side,” Norris said afterwards. “He doesn’t need to be — he’s got plenty of wins — but [it was] a bit desperate to do what he could to not let me past.”
“I think [Norris] said the right things in saying it’s a great battle, but there’s no need to act so desperately,” Andrea Stella also surmised after the race. “There’s no need to think that the world is going to [end] if the overtaking maneuver by the car behind is going to be completed.
“Max, you’ll have your own opportunity. It’s not going to [end] the world now — if he makes it, [he deserved] to make it.”
Verstappen was clearly fired up, regularly complaining on team radio about Norris “divebombing” him into the corner, in a way that was remarkably reminiscent of Verstappen himself when he goes for a move. Criticizing the Dutchman for fighting so hard when “he’s got plenty of wins” is a strange approach, though.
That’s not to say Verstappen wasn’t wholly to blame for the collision that occurred, nor that he can’t improve and wouldn’t be an even better driver if he just stayed to the right side of the line when it comes to strong defending on Sunday. But there’s a refreshing aspect to the fact that he races in one way, and one way only, whether he’s fighting for his first point, his first win or his 62nd.
Norris was unhappy that Verstappen appeared to move in response to his own overtaking attempts on more than one occasion, calling it “just a bit reckless.” Then Stella drew attention to Verstappen being allowed to get away with such driving, both back in 2021 in his fight against Lewis Hamilton, and again on Sunday.
That’s certainly more of a reason to criticize the FIA rather than the driver. Verstappen is simply driving in the way that he’s been allowed to, and then when he crossed the line — leading to the contact that resulted in punctures for both drivers — he was penalized for it.
Looks familiar, doesn’t it? Austrian Grand Prix, 2019. Lorenzo Bellanca/Motorsport Images
That’s where his error was. The rest was him playing to the whistle in the way that all of the best drivers do. The perfect example came in 2019 when Charles Leclerc felt Verstappen should have been penalized — ironically for forcing him off at Turn 3 in Austria in their fight for the win — but took on board the feedback about what the stewards deemed acceptable and duly raced Verstappen with equal measure a week later at Silverstone.
On that occasion the stakes were lower, but it was a thrilling race and set the tone for when the pair would cross paths again in future. This time around, there could be a repeat.
Norris hasn’t had many chances to win races, but he’s growing into the role of Verstappen’s closest challenger. He’s shown that he can consistently put the pressure on, and even pull out stunning laps such as his final qualifying attempt in Spain to get the better of the three-time world champion.
Verstappen similarly hasn’t had a true rival since the first half of 2022, and even then the trend was the opposite to today, where McLaren has been closing on Red Bull. The championship gap is huge, but with 13 races still to go Verstappen knows he still needs to take every chance he gets given how much the performance gap has shrunk this year.
Despite their friendship, the pair have also not properly raced each other prior to this season.
It’s Verstappen who’s tended to have the machinery to fight for wins, while Norris is only just starting to enjoy that luxury. Just as the Red Bull driver started to rattle Hamilton’s cage as he challenged his dominance — and those rivals had many incidents for which they were each blamed while trying to work out how to race each other — it’s now Norris who has the potential to do the same to Verstappen.
Even if this season is drifting away from a championship point of view for Norris, the cars are converging to the point that 2025 could be an epic title battle, and lines drawn this year will play a part in every fight moving forward.
Regardless of whether the FIA clarify the rules of racing, or the sting gets taken out of the championship, it’ll be interesting to see how Verstappen and Norris both adapt.
