Blow-up that had to happen: Why F1 controversy will change Lando Norris forever

The entire Formula 1 world was braced for fallout from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’s late-race crash at the Austrian Grand Prix this week, but what was meant to be the sport’s newest driver feud turned into a fizzer after just a few days off.

Norris had been highly critical of Verstappen on Sunday night, declaring that the Dutchman had lacked fairness in the defensive driving that caused the crash and that he would lose “a lot of respect” for him if he didn’t apologise.

Verstappen, unsurprisingly, was unrepentant in the aftermath. “It is what it is,” he said.

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The team principals got in on the act. Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner declared Verstappen’s 10-second penalty was harsh for what he described as a “racing incident”. His McLaren counterpart, Andrea Stella, said such a point of view reflected a lack of integrity.

Just four days later, with the sport reconvening in Silverstone, the paddock was prepared for more bad blood to be spilt.

But that’s not what it got.

“I think some of the things I said [to the media] after the race were just more just because I was frustrated at the time,” Norris conceded. “A lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotions, and I probably said some things I didn’t necessarily believe in.

“I don’t expect an apology from him. I don’t think he should apologise.

“I thought it was, as a review, good racing.”

Verstappen said he prioritised protecting his close friendship with the Englishman.

“The only thing that I cared about is maintaining my relationship with Lando, because we are great friends,” he said, per ESPN.

“We immediately spoke on Monday, and I think we came to the conclusion that we actually really enjoyed our battle.

“We like to race hard.

“We agreed with 99 per cent of everything. That’s a lot I think already.

“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.”

All’s well that ends well.

But that doesn’t mean things will go back to the way they were.

While the two long-time friends have saved their relationship, the Austrian Grand Prix will have changed Norris irrevocably.

It was the crash he needed to suffer to prepare for a championship battle with Verstappen.

GREATNESS IS MADE IN THE GREY AREAS

Verstappen is one of Formula 1’s most ferocious competitors. Rare is it that he engages cruise-home mode; whether in combat or dominating out the front, he’s always pushing flat out.

Often that takes him to the very limit of the regulations.

Rules were written specifically to curtail some of the more extreme elements of his racecraft in his early years in the sport. His maiden championship was won over Lewis Hamilton through sheer force of will.

‘Relentless’ is his champion’s epithet.

His borderline defence in Austria was just another example.

“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,” he said, per the F1 website.

“Like how you design a car, you try to go to the edge of the rules, maybe you find some grey areas here and there.

“That’s the same how you race, otherwise you will never be a top driver and you will never succeed in life anyway.”

Plenty of other drivers have already learnt what it means to take on Verstappen in wheel-to-wheel battle.

His former teammate Daniel Ricciardo said a driver had to raise their game to enter the fight.

“It doesn’t necessarily maybe change the way you race him,” he explained. “You just know you’re going to have to pull off a really good move and make it stick.

“I think Lando learned that on Saturday.

“He thought he probably had it done, and Max said, ‘No, not today’. You live and you learn.”

It’s about more than just style; it’s about reputation too. Racing is as much psychological as it is physical. Having his rival intimidated is half the battle won before he’s even shown a wheel.

“No-one in this sport wants to be the one that gets bullied,” Ricciardo said. “You want to stand your ground against everyone.

“Obviously it’s your reputation as well. When people come up to you on track, you don’t want them to think, ‘Oh this guy’s going to be an easy one for me’.

“You always want to have your elbows out to an extent. We know Max from day one has always had his out, and I think just naturally his DNA — he just is a tough racer.

“It’s not something he has to really dig deep for. That’s just how he races. You know it’s kind of unconditional with him, that you’re going to get a tough battle.”

LANDO WILL HEED LECLERC’S LESSON

How will Norris respond to this lesson?

No-one doubts his speed, and his racecraft, while imperfect, is strong.

He has a well-worn path to follow. After all, he isn’t the first to have raced Verstappen for victory and ended up burnt.

A clash with the Dutchman at the very same track — and at the very same corner — was the making of Charles Leclerc as a Formula 1 frontrunner.

The 2019 Austrian Grand Prix looked like it was winless Leclerc’s to lose until an early pit stop — to cover Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas, who ended up presenting no threat — left him vulnerable.

Verstappen made his last pit stop later in the race, giving him a tyre advantage that allowed him to close up to the back of the Ferrari.

The battle was on, and the pair met on the same piece of tarmac with three laps to go.

Verstappen dummied left and darted right, getting on the brakes late and forcing Leclerc onto the outside line. They got side by side on the apex, and Verstappen ushered Leclerc over the high kerbs on exit, winning the place and the race.

A three-hour post-race stewards investigation confirmed the move was legal.

Leclerc was philosophical in defeat.

“The only thing is that I would like maybe a bit more consistency,” he said. “There have been some other incidents in the past which have been smaller in a way and that have been penalised.

“If we can race that way, then I’m more than happy to race that way. I think it’s good for Formula 1.

“I think this is what us drivers want, but we just need to know what we can expect from the others.

“Obviously it’s better if it’s just official, so that everyone knows it and that’s it. Now I think I will just conclude that we can go a bit further in our aggressiveness on track.”

He put theory into practice at the very next race — as it happens, the British Grand Prix.

Neither he nor Verstappen were battling for the lead, but the final podium position was up for grabs, and the pair fought tooth and nail for another taste of champagne.

On the track, off the track, wheel to wheel, the two sparred until this time Leclerc prevailed.

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And those lessons continued to serve him well throughout the year and against other drivers, including against Lewis Hamilton in Monza later that season.

By then Leclerc had already claimed his long-awaited first victory, but Ferrari’s first win at home since 2010 beckoned, and the Monegasque had disobeyed team orders in qualifying to take pole, putting himself under pressure to seal the deal.

He was sternly challenged in the race by second-place starter Hamilton in one of the more memorable battles of his career. Regularly wheel to wheel, he shoved the Mercedes to the edge of the track repeatedly, including once that earnt him a warning, to complete and unlikely defence and take what would be his most famous victory until his home-race Monaco triumph this year.

“Since Austria it’s clear we can go a bit further in the way we defend and overtake and just the aggressiveness of us drivers,” he said at the time.

“I believe that Austria helped me changed the approach, and today it’s also thanks to this that I managed to win. It was obviously very on the limit, but I’m happy to race like this.”

In the heat of the battle in Austria Leclerc had forged for himself a new harder racing edge.

There’s also an interesting parallel in Leclerc having a long-running relationship with Verstappen, albeit one that needed to be fostered from bitter nemeses to respectful rivals as they climbed the ranks to Formula 1.

After their Austria spat surfaced the now famous video of their post-race reactions to a crash at karting level, over which Verstappen fumes and a young Leclerc describes it as nothing more than “just an inchident”.

“It is quite funny, I’ve seen it everywhere on social media really,” Leclerc reflected in 2019.

“I think it was completely the other way around when I was saying it was an incident and he was saying that I pushed him off track.

“Now seven years later it’s the same, the other way around, in Formula 1, both of us driving for two top teams.

“I think it reminds at least me the road that we have done together since these times, we were kids, dreaming of one day being in Formula 1, and now we are fighting each other in Formula 1. That’s great to see.”

Norris is now on the same path that Leclerc trod five years ago.

If it takes him into championship contention this year or next, he’ll be better prepared for it.

He’s met Verstappen at his level, and his found where that intersects with the limits of the rules. And so far as we know, a new respect has been fostered between two friends and future title challengers.

“It’s clear how he races,” Norris said. “It’s tough. It’s on the limit.

“I think it’s what we love. It’s what I love. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole fight I had with him.

“I think I’m excited to go race him again this weekend.”

Just like Leclerc, turn 3 in Austria will have been his making.