The end of the 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix was horribly familiar to motorsport purists – those who think the world’s best drivers really shouldn’t cross paths. But it was once again exciting for so many other observers. Because it was F1 2021 all over again.
There are similarities between Red Bull driver Max Verstappen taking on McLaren driver Lando Norris at Turn 3 of the Red Bull Ring and so many moments from Verstappen’s campaign against Lewis Hamilton three years ago.
This year ended with a particular focus on unacceptable defending – after Verstappen’s moves in Brazil in Turn 4 went unpunished and led directly to his actions in the race from disgrace which was the first visit of the F1 in Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday in Austria, it was a defensive move by Verstappen that ultimately earned a penalty, following his repeated driving towards Norris in the braking zones of their two previous engagements at the same location.
All included controversial attacking moves from Norris given the McLaren driver’s origin with a large DRS speed gap. But these were masked by the mitigating circumstances of Verstappen’s aggressive defending. Oh, so Silverstone 2021 and Hamilton isn’t giving up ground at Copse.
And the Verstappen/Norris crash in Austria followed a botched Red Bull pit stop, with Verstappen fuming on his team radio – in true Monza 2021 fashion too.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, a constant voice of calm and sanity in a year when so many of his fellow team bosses have disgraced themselves, summed it up.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, retires in the pit lane after contact with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, while battling for the lead
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“The problem is if you don’t address these issues honestly, they will come back,” Stella said.
“They came back today because they were not treated properly in the past when there were fights with Lewis that should have been punished more severely.
Verstappen acted the way he did last Sunday because of the way he has approached fighting in F1 in the past.
Hours after the crash, he was still saying: “I honestly think I left a car’s width on the white line.” The moves were also reminiscent of his late braking tactics from early in his F1 career, which led to the famous “Verstappen rule.”
F1’s racing rules have been changed since 2021, bringing much-needed clarity to many of the things Verstappen was doing.
His safety car restart tactics in Abu Dhabi in 2021 (and Bahrain and Jeddah in 2022) have been banned, and much more precise details are now given on where drivers should place their front wheels at key moments of moves and when they should leave enough space to attack their rivals.
All of this has contributed to the blame for Norris’ crash being placed on Verstappen. But McLaren believes more needs to be done to end this previous defence.
That is not to say Norris was wrong to cynically overstep the limits of the track – some would have done so desperately as at Turn 3 when he left the pits after his second stop and at Turn 1, apparently in his hasty chase – as he pushed to catch Verstappen when he realised a win was on the line. Nor that his first attack came from too far out.
“But he adapted and Verstappen didn’t.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battle for the lead
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
It’s just one of Verstappen’s innate characteristics. He’s absolutely unyielding. Inaction in 2021 has clearly strengthened his resolve. But what F1 witnessed on Sunday was another of the markers he claims not to set, but evidently does.
Take the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, for example, where Verstappen later denied sending a message after Red Bull’s only humiliation in Singapore last year. Red Bull team member Christian Horner denied the claim, revealing that he “was really motivated and he said, ‘I want to win the race by 20 seconds'”…
Verstappen entered the Austrian weekend with a 69-point lead over Norris. He didn’t need to defend as hard as he did.
But, as his hyper-aggressive conduct towards Hamilton at the start of 2021 made clear, with echoes of the tactics of other controversial F1 greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher early in their careers, he was clearly sending a message to Norris.
And he got one back immediately. Norris stays straight against the outside line until Turn 3 when they collide. He doesn’t move towards the kerb like Verstappen did against Carlos Sainz and Leclerc here last year – all inside car movements are illegal.
Norris quickly realized that the only way to fight Verstappen was to give his best. Maybe he always knew it given what F1 has seen in 2021.
He did so immediately because – even though Norris claimed to be in a title fight in 2024 after his near-failure at Barcelona – the points deficit means he can afford to take risks in a way that Hamilton could not do at the start of 2021.
The other element of this saga is how it brushes aside suggestions that Verstappen “drove with great maturity” after his 2021 battle. That’s how Horner put it at the 2022 French GP.
This theory was based on the fact that Verstappen did not collide with Leclerc that year. Still, it was surely clear to Verstappen what the best 2022 concept car would be once the RB18 could shed that understeer-inducing excess weight and Ferrari was sure to implode against the elite Red team Bull. He just didn’t need to be so aggressive, even if he hadn’t decided to change.
In any case, this argument was always fragile. This was proven by Brazil 2022, when there was another unnecessary mishap for maintaining the scorers, this time again with Hamilton. And later in that race, how Verstappen refused to help Sergio Perez in his doomed bid to finish second in the 2022 standings. This allowed the internal team tensions that Red Bull had worked so hard to quell spectacularly in the audience.
Then in 2023, Verstappen called Russell an “asshole” for running with exactly the Dutchman’s uncompromising style in the Baku sprint.
It’s rather shameful how quickly Verstappen pointed out his Red Bull team’s failures during that final pit stop at the Austrian GP and their awkward balance change on the tricky hard tires. Additionally, he highlights how this brilliant trail layout fuels controversial tactics by those willing to use it to their cynical advantage.
Pole sitter Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, speaks at Parc Fermé
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
GPS track data shows Verstappen released the throttle and braked later than Norris in every instance except their initial clash where Norris went off – and even then it was very close.
This suggests that Verstappen was moving slightly before braking, and why he doesn’t calculate – in the manner of Schumacher/Jerez 1997 – that he has been penalised for his actions. But in any case, it is the impact it will have on Norris, already engaged in the braking zone, that matters.
And this is where the rules reappear in this already highly toxic debate. The FIA failed to react after the F1 events in Brazil in 2021, where the spectacle of F1 clearly took priority over sporting purity.
What will he do now? If nothing, Norris has already shown that he will not back down either and that inevitably there will be further contact.
Exhilarating for some, desperate for others.