The dust had settled between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen following their run-in last weekend in Austria, with the McLaren driver no longer seeking an apology from his Red Bull rival.
Verstappen was leading last Sunday’s race with Norris snapping at his heels in the closing stages of the event. But the two drivers ended up in a clash that proved costly for both.
While Verstappen was able to salvage fifth at the checkered flag, McLaren was forced to retire Norris’ car, much to the chagrin of the Briton who was left fuming after the incident.
Venting his frustration to the media after the race, Norris did not mince his words, calling Verstappen’s on-track behaviour “reckless, stupid and desperate”.
He also made clear that if no apology was forthcoming, he would lose “a lot of respect” for his friend and rival.
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Four days later, cooler heads have prevailed following a clear-the-air talk between the two protagonists.
“I honestly don’t think he needed to apologise, some of the things I said in the pen after the race were more just because I was frustrated at the time,” Norris said ahead of this weekend’s British GP.
“A lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotions, and I probably said some things I didn’t believe in, especially later on in the week.
“It was a pretty pathetic incident in terms of what ended both our races, it wasn’t like an obvious bit of contact. It was probably one of the smallest bits of contact you could have, but with a pretty terrible consequence for both of us, especially for myself.
“As a review, a good race, at times very close to the edge, but we’ve spoken about it, and we’re both happy to go racing again.”
While Norris emphasized their off-track friendship remains intact, he acknowledged room for improvement in how they race each other. He stopped short of assigning blame, but did suggest both drivers could have done things differently to avoid the collision.
Norris then shifted his focus to the FIA, urging stricter enforcement of rules against moving under braking. He warned that such maneuvers could lead to even bigger accidents in the future.
“It’s a tricky one. Max isn’t going to want to crash, he’s not going to want to ruin his own race and his own chances,” Norris added.
“So I think there are different things I need to do slightly differently, but at the end of it I don’t think he’s going to change too much. I don’t think I need to change too much.
“We could have avoided the crash definitely, because there’s something I could have done and basically used more kerb, but there’s things from both sides that I’m sure we wanted to do better, in a slightly different way.
“But on the whole, I think, avoiding an incident for moving under braking is probably the biggest part of it. That can very easily be an incident that comes from such a thing, and I think that’s something we have to be very careful of.
“That’s just something for the future and something that the stewards need to be aware of, that something could easily go wrong. So I think to a certain point you’re defending, you’re being aggressive, and that’s okay.
“And there’ll be a point where there is a limit and I think that just needs to be defined in a slightly better way.”
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Norris reins in Austria frustrations: ‘No need for Max to apologize’ F1i.com.
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