When two drivers crash in the fight for victory in Formula 1, it will always cause discussion. This was no different after the collision between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in the Austrian GP. Verstappen was punished for it, and in the heat of the battle, Norris and McLaren also loudly criticized him for his driving style. However, four days later in Silverstone, Verstappen’s professional colleagues were wary of this. In fact, some even defended him.
“Sounds like people are beating Max up a bit. Sounds like it’s a bit disproportionate,” Daniel Ricciardo suggests. “I guess it’s being blown out of proportion because it was a battle for the lead, friends becoming enemies, that sort of thing! If you look at it, it was tough of course, but it’s about winning. You don’t wave anyone through.”
Verstappen vs. Norris racing accident? Wide approval in Formula 1
The majority filed the matter away as a racing incident. Both Verstappen’s movement on the brakes and the actual collision. “The first movement on the brakes was even more questionable,” says Alex Albon. “I don’t think he was moving on the brakes himself during the collision. He was on a straight line, his direction of travel was just a little to the left.”
“We have to leave a car width of space, and I think that was there, there was still a kerb on the left, and not a wall,” adds Nico Hülkenberg. This is also a common opinion among the drivers. “It could have been avoided on both sides,” says Charles Leclerc. “Nothing seemed excessive,” says Ricciardo. “Was it at the limit? Maybe. But dangerous or reckless? At least not what I saw.”
“Max is a tough racer, one of the best, and he will push the rules to the limit,” shrugs George Russell. “All of the top drivers do that, to be honest.” Ricciardo points out that such a risky maneuver is not unnecessarily dangerous at this point: “It’s quite slow, and this is not a situation like 2021 [in Silverstone] in Copse. That had much greater consequences.” At that time, Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton collided there. Hamilton received the same penalty as Verstappen in Austria.
Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda note that similar maneuvers in the rear field occur again and again. “Many of them are not even shown on TV,” says Alonso. Certainly not punished. Ricciardo believes: “In nine out of ten cases, this contact has no consequences.”
Ricciardo defends Verstappen: One race is not enough
Ricciardo was probably the loudest defender of his friend and former team-mate Verstappen on Thursday in Silverstone. “There’s no question that you’ll have a tough fight with him,” he agrees. But he doesn’t see that as a problem: “That doesn’t necessarily mean you fight him differently. You just know that you need a really good move and that it holds. I think Lando learned that on Sunday.”
“It’s not that we don’t dare to race against him, quite the opposite,” says Ricciardo. “He gives everything on the track and many fans like that about him. Do I think he has matured since the beginning of his career? Absolutely. I don’t think he finds himself in situations like that all the time.”
“I don’t think one race is enough to create a narrative that ‘he hasn’t changed anything’,” is Ricciardo’s conclusion. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella finally dug into the past on Sunday in Austria and conjured up the ghosts of 2021. That without penalties, ambiguous situations like the controversial season finale between Verstappen and Hamilton would again arise.
Hamilton, by the way, refrained from answering any questions on the subject on Thursday in Silverstone. When asked whether Verstappen’s robust driving style was due to the stewards’ infrequent intervention, the Mercedes driver nevertheless gave a clear answer: “I don’t agree with that.”