How much will the crash in the closing laps of the Austrian GP affect the way Max Verstappen and Lando Norris now race each other? – Ruairidh
The intensity of the battle between Verstappen and Norris in Austria was caused by Verstappen’s style of racing – he pushes things to the limit of acceptability.
‘Moving under braking’ – or changing one’s line when in the braking phase while defending – is a no-no in F1, because of the dangers involved when a driver is attacking from behind and is forced to change his trajectory to avoid a crash when already braking on the limit. Norris accused Verstappen of doing this in Austria but Verstappen denied it.
After the race, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella drew a direct line between this incident and the controversial battles between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021, when many of the other drivers thought Verstappen had, at times, broken the rules.
“The problem behind it,” Stella said, “is that if you don’t address these things honestly, then they come back. They came 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.
“You learn now to race in a certain way that you can consider fair and square.
“We have so much respect for Red Bull and for Max. They don’t need to do this. It’s a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?
“It’s not about racing in a driver’s way. It’s about racing in the regulations, and the regulations must be enforced in a way that is effective.”
Verstappen says he has not done anything wrong and described his 10-second penalty on Sunday as a bit severe.
Until he starts getting consistently punished for the way he races, Verstappen won’t change – and perhaps not even then. And why should he, one could argue?
The question for Norris, then, is how to deal with that?
2024-07-01 17:21:48
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