Formula 1 News: Rival drivers back Verstappen after Norris crash

(GMM) As Max Verstappen and Lando Norris publicly reconciled their friendship ahead of the British GP, fellow Formula 1 drivers played down the duo’s crash in Austria less than a week ago.

Within hours of the biased and jealous British Media getting heated about triple world champion Verstappen’s racing style, McLaren’s Norris was actually getting in touch with his friend to take the heat out of their spat.

“After the race, I said there was no point discussing the incident at that point,” Verstappen said at Silverstone on Thursday. “The emotions were running high and all that.

“The next day I woke up quite early because I wanted to talk to Lando, but he had already sent me a message. I really respect that approach,” he added, after Norris immediately suggested that their friendship might now be over.

As for the media’s criticism, as well as a verbal attack by Norris’ boss Andrea Stella, Verstappen responded: “I don’t give a sh*t about the criticism.

“I go home, live my life, and – as I said – the only thing I cared about is my relationship with Lando,” he added. “That was the only thing that was really important to me about that weekend.”

Norris, 24, also said his friendship with Verstappen is now “business as usual” again, and he even backed away from his earlier claim that the Dutchman should apologize for how aggressively he defended his race lead in Austria.

“I don’t think he needed to apologize,” said the Briton. “I think some of the things I said in the pen after the race were more just because I was frustrated at the time. A lot of adrenaline, a lot of just emotions.

“I probably said some things I didn’t necessarily believe in,” added Norris.

Other current Formula 1 drivers also defended Verstappen.

“I don’t understand all the fuss,” said Daniel Ricciardo. “I mean – what do they expect from Max?

“If you’re fighting for victory, you can’t seriously believe that a guy like Max will politely wave his opponent past. Was it even dangerous? Reckless? Neither!

“It was a slight touch at low speed,” said Verstappen’s former Red Bull teammate. “I think Max versus Lewis Hamilton here in Copse in 2021 was a completely different story.”

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg agreed: “For me, it was just racing. I mean, the cars could hardly have touched each other any less than they did. Normally, something like that ends pretty well.

“I thought the whole thing was blown out of proportion,” said the German.

F1 veteran Fernando Alonso even aimed fire at the FIA’s strict stewarding, arguing that over-policing incidents is “removing the incentive to try a move”.

“It will be a long driver briefing,” the Spaniard predicted, “but we have to sit down together and see how we can do better in the future.

“But it’s become too much,” he said of the way drivers are penalized for small incidents. “Formula 1 always manages to make things more complicated.”

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Ex-F1 champion Jenson Button told Sky Sports: “I enjoyed watching the battle between Max and Lando – it’s something we’ll be talking about for races to come, years to come, these two fighting for a world championship.

“There’s a lot of talk about Max moving in the braking zone. Should he have had a bigger penalty?

“It might be controversial but I don’t think he should have.

“When he braked, he slightly went to the left. Sometimes that happens. You look to the right, you move to the left a bit.

“I think he moved to the left because Lando was there, which is the issue.

“Lando also could have moved to the left. There was a lot more circuit to go. And avoided the contact.

“Something very similar happened last year in Austria on exactly the same corner. It was Carlos Sainz on the inside and Verstappen on the outside.

“Carlos moved to the left, exactly as Max does. Max follows him, runs on the curb, they don’t make contact.

“It’s hard racing. Sometimes it goes wrong and we talk about it afterwards. But it’s great that we’re talking about it because these two will be fighting for years to come.

“This sets us up for the British Grand Prix. It will be these two fighting for the win.”

“Max, in the past, has been overly aggressive especially against Lewis,” Button said.

“I don’t feel it’s that way against Lando at the moment. If they went a step further, it would be.

“Drivers never used to come on the radio and say ‘he pushed me off!’

“They do it because it’s a reaction that the stewards will hear, and hopefully do something about it, because they have done in the past.”

“It’s frustrating that rules are interpreted differently all the time,” Kevin Magnussen said. “Maybe they should make them a bit freer. In the end, Max got a penalty, which may have been justified according to the rules. But he had already been punished on his own with the puncture, so it didn’t add anything at that point,” Magnussen argued.

Magnussen’s frustration stems from what he perceives as inconsistent rule applications:

“It’s frustrating that rules are interpreted differently all the time,” he stated. He contrasts this with his experiences in American racing circuits like IndyCar. “I have driven IndyCar myself and also sports cars in America. In the US, they have this approach, to let the drivers race and it works. It’s not like it’s out of control there. When you drive there, it’s a bit like karting used to be. There were no specific rules for anything and everything, and it worked naturally. And the racing was great!”

“I think you have to make a move before the other person does, otherwise it’s dangerous if someone slipstreams you and you move right after he moved. You can’t do that. Once you hit the brakes, changing direction too much is also dangerous,” he explained.