Max Verstappen, Lando Norris reflect on their F1 Austrian GP battle which wound up in a collision, as they discuss their friendship as well.
It was rather unpreventable for Red Bull’s Verstappen and McLaren’s Norris to find with each other at some time throughout F1 2024 period. It at some point occurred in Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring and not when however after 4 efforts from the Brit.
Verstappen at a healthy and balanced lead in the initial fifty percent of the grand prix however Norris never ever allowed him off with the void essentially floating around the 7 secs. The 2nd rest stop opened up evictions where a sluggish quit permitted the Brit to be about 2 secs behind him.
Using the brand-new collection of tool tires versus a rubbed one, Norris can use the stress which he did so. He pursued the within line for the majority of his efforts at Turn 3 however could not make it stick. He did go off at one factor and needed to return the area.
Before the ultimate collision, Verstappen went off as well however maintained the lead. Having attempted the within line, Norris went with the outdoors technique when their back tire touched and there was prompt leak to both their cars and trucks as they were compelled to limp back home.
While Norris retired, Verstappen took care of to proceed and was handed a 10s charge. The Dutchman was handed the charge for transferring to his left which triggered the collision. The Brit as well had a 5s time charge for track restrictions offense.
Both were dejected after the grand prix as Verstappen kept in mind regarding taking a while prior to talking with Norris– when the warm air is exploded. The Brit placed the blame on the Dutchman, while the latter was protective regarding the Brit’s actions.
Racing, collision–
Norris: “I mean, there are rules for what you’re not allowed to do and allowed to do. He was doing things you’re not allowed to do and not getting penalised. I expected a tough battle against Max, I know what to expect. I expect aggression and pushing the limits and that kind of thing, but all three times he’s doing stuff which can easily cause an incident. And in a way a bit reckless. It seemed a little bit desperate from his side. It doesn’t need to be, he’s got plenty of wins. A bit desperate to not let me pass, I know, it’s going to be aggressive. I’m in a way not surprised, but I just expected a tough, fair, respectful on the edge bit of racing and I don’t feel like that’s what I got him into.”
Verstappen: “I think the first stint was quite good, then at the end of that first stint I caught quite a bit of traffic. We should have boxed for me, personally, because I just gave up free lap time. We basically did a lot of things wrong today, I think starting with strategy. The pit stops were a disaster. The first one was really bad, the second one even more of a disaster, and then you give free lap time — 6s over those two pit stops. [Of course, then] it’s a race again and that’s why we put ourselves in that position. Unfortunate…for an accident to happen between us, which you never want to happen, but we did everything wrong that we could have done wrong today.”
Changes anything–
Norris: “I don’t think I need to change anything I’m doing. I mean, I was on the edge of the track, I didn’t know what else I’m going to do. He’s always been a bit like that. I respect Max a lot and what he can do and what he goes out and does every time he’s on track, but there’s times when I think he goes maybe a little bit too far. And I feel like today is a little bit of that. It’s one incident and at the same time, I know these things happen. I’m disappointed. He ruined my race, destroyed my car. These are the best bits on the car 1719780039 for the bin. We don’t have a lot of space in the battle that we’re in, in terms of upgrades and budget cap and things like that. My whole car is destroyed and these are all the bits that we need for next week. It’s not just a repercussion of what happens on the track, it’s everything that we have to carry in Silverstone and be disadvantaged by. I just expected a bit more from him.”
Penalty sufficient–
Norris: “I mean, I don’t want to talk about it too much, that’s for you guys to decide. I do what I can, try to drive a good and fair race. Like I said, it is just not what I got in return from his side. I don’t care about the rest honestly, it is not for me to decide the penalties and things like that. I feel like what he did to us was unfair for our side, three of the times, no warning was issued, he did it again the final time and ruined both our races, so that’s it.”
Verstappen: “I knew that he was on the black and white flag. As for my penalty, I’ll look back at it but 10s seems a bit severe for me, because I didn’t feel like it was anything kind of aggressive, going on in that move.”
Movement under stopping–
Norris: “The thing is with that, a little bit of movement is always going to happen. But he’s completely reacting to what I was doing. And once you’ve committed so aggressively on the brakes, you don’t leave room for getting off and allowing a bit more space in the middle of a braking zone. When you’ve committed, you’ve committed and he would move which forced me to move and therefore I would lock up or do something. But at every point before he moved I was not locked up, I was not out of control. My moves were fair until I had to react to something he did in the middle of a braking zone. And I can’t, you don’t have grip, you’re not able to – once you’re on the edge – just adjust and counter these kinds of things. At the same time, if I am not able to move like I was, then we’re going to have more collisions. I’m happy with what I did. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Verstappen: “For me, it was stagnating under stopping since every single time I relocated I was not stopping currently. Of training course from the outdoors it constantly appears like that. But I assume I understand relatively well what to do in these circumstances. Also a few of those [Norris moves] were truly late divebombs, so it was a little sending it up the within and simply really hope the various other individual guides from it, which is not constantly exactly how you race. But it’s simply the edge below offers to that also. I have actually remained in the various other setting also when you go all out and it’s simply the form of the edge. The step we obtained with each other was something I really did not anticipate since I saw him coming, safeguard a little the within, after that under stopping we touch the back tires and we both obtain a slit from it, which certainly is something you do not intend to occur.
“I mean of course I see behind, he was divebombing me before, so I moved a little bit to the right and then he decides to go onto the kerb on the left and we touched with the rear tyre. It is something that I didn’t expect as well. For me, it is just a very unfortunate situation that it happened. That’s what I meant with the divebombing. It’s just standing it up late and just hoping that the other guy steers out of it and you make the corner, which wasn’t the case. Of course, you can say moving on the braking for me, which wasn’t the case because I didn’t brake when I moved. But it’s also a bit like just sending it up the inside from far, which of course looks good. I like it as well, but sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. And I think today that didn’t work out. But then of course, like I said before, with the contact that we have, it’s super unfortunate.”
Friendship–
Norris: “It is not for me to say, it is for him to say. I don’t know, it depends what he says. If he says he did nothing wrong, then I’d lose a lot of respect for that. But if he admits to being a bit stupid and running into me and just being a bit reckless in a way, then I’ll have a small amount of respect for it. It’s still a tough one to take when we’re fighting for the win. I’m trying to be fair from my and he just wasn’t.”
Verstappen: “We’ll talk about it; not now, it’s not the right time, but we’re racing drivers. Of course Lando and I have a little age gap which is why we never really raced together in lower categories like some other drivers here, but we’ll move on. You never want to think about that. You shouldn’t think like that, that’s also never I thought about stuff. But of course where there are close battles, sometimes these things happen. You never want it to happen. It shouldn’t be [changing], we’re all racing drivers, of course we don’t want to crash with each other. But when you are fighting for the lead, it is always tough battles, it happened today which of course is a shame, I am annoyed, he’s annoyed – I think it is fair.”
Car, technique–
Verstappen: “Today has been awful, everything has been wrong, I’m complaining about the tyres, we didn’t pit, I was stuck in traffic, bad execution with pit stop, everything went wrong. They [hard and medium] both felt bad, it is not that we did wrong thing with the tyres. My balance in the first stint was not even that bad, but then I don’t know why, the car just got worse throughout the race, that is also something that we have to look into if something broke on the car. It was just very bad, I have no explanation why suddenly the car just transformed from an OK balance in the first stint to just undriveable behavior afterwards. You can say damage limitation with P5, but it’s not what you want to happen for both of us, we are both annoyed, it is not only that Lando is annoyed, I am annoyed.”
Post- race after seeing a little bit–
Verstappen: “I suggest it’s truly regrettable that it occurred I assume. Now I have actually had bit even more time to take a look at things however I assume at first, the initial couple of actions were from fairly much … so whatever occurred, it occurred. I assume where we touched, truthfully, it simply seemed like it was a little bit awkward. When you remain in the vehicle, originally you assume have I done glitch? Didn’ t I leave sufficient room? Like half an automobile size or whatever. Of training course, you can constantly evaluate or suggest regarding what is the cars and trucks size, I truthfully assume I did leave a vehicles size on the white line and really you race hard, like I am not there to provide 2 cars and trucks size since after that I understand he’s going to obtain me on the departure.
“You race hard for a race win, I think that’s how it should be. As a friend, you never want to touch, you never want to crash, but yeah it happened. At the end of the day, it is part of racing as well. Even though it is not nice, we are both of course disappointed with the outcome but from our side also, we have to look at the whole race because I think we did a lot of stuff wrong. We had two very poor pit stop which also basically put us back and that’s why also we were fighting to the end. We had a very healthy lead and we could have definitely had a bit of a different race if we just executed the race also a lot better.”
Here’s what occurred: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-austrian-grand-prix-high-drama-as-norris-and-verstappen-collide-after-titanic-battle-for-the-lead.1803298193864075547
Here’s exactly how F1 Austrian GP turned out
Here’s web link to a F1 Discord network, participate in to connect
