🇦🇹 F1'24: R11: No such thing as a "friendly" rivalry

Did you know: You can solve over a thousand track limit penalties by installing a couple of strips of gravel? The low-tech solution used at the Red Bull Ring was highly effective with most drivers preferring to stay within the white lines rather than trying to speed through the stones.

Instead it was discipline of a different sort that dominated the headlines in Austria, until the end, when the entire rule book seemed to be leafed though for any perceived rule break. Penalties were given out for speeding in the pit lane, crossing the white line heading into the pits and causing a collision, but none of them for track limits.

@redbullracing

Always together 🥰 #F1 #bestfriend #maxverstappen #landonorris

The incident a few laps from the end is going to be shown on highlight reels for the rest of the season and beyond, as we might have finally seen the spark of rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The two drivers are famously friends off track, playing video games together and travelling together on the same private jet. 

But hard racing between the two for several laps came to a head between the two on lap 64, when they clashed at the tight, uphill turn 3 hairpin, causing punctures for both drivers and forcing Norris out of the race while Verstappen dropped down to fifth overall, collecting 10 points, or in other words, a couple fewer that what the Haas drivers collected.

It was a double insult to injury for both drivers, with Norris getting Driver of the Day and Verstappen losing a point for fastest lap after a late, late pitstop by Fernando Alonso gave him the accolade, but not the point.

Last week, I wrote that teams have to be perfect to beat Red Bull. We can throw that rule out of the window too, with George Russell mopping up the pieces of his rivals’ cars and taking 25 points for just being there. Russell drove a somewhat lonely race a few seconds ahead and behind others, before diving past both drivers in the aftermath of their incident. 

It’s Russell’s second career Grand Prix win, and no matter how many wins he takes in his career, none of those will be as fortunate as that. Right place, right time for Russell and Mercedes, who could not have possibly thought that this weekend was going to be a winning one for them.

But where does this leave Verstappen and Norris now? With a gap of 81 points, It’s possible, but unlikely that Norris might catch Verstappen for the Drivers’ championship, but the seasons to come may now have that memory in the background, lighting the blue touch paper for a rivalry that was far too friendly up to now.

No F1 rivalry worthy of the name has ever been truly friendly. Rivals from different teams, or people you’ve grown up with in junior series, rivalries forged in the same garage - especially rivalries in the same garage - gave the sport something to focus on. In fact, I might be missing someone, but I can’t think of many sporting rivalries where the two protagonists were friends. At some point, you have to forget that your rival is your friend, and perhaps the next step in Norris’ journey to becoming a regular race winner is to not be friends with his rivals.

After the race, Norris was asked about his friendship with Verstappen and said that it depended on what the Red Bull driver’s response would be. Verstappen didn’t blame Norris, talking about the shape of turn 3. Both men’s responses are perhaps more measured than I might have been, but I suspect time and distance away from the sport will help. 

Unfortunately for the sake of their friendship, F1 is in the middle of a triple-header, meaning there’s a week until Silverstone and a chance for both drivers to resume their rivalry. The British Grand Prix, already with significant casual interest, will have even more of a spotlight on it, with the reaction and intensification of Verstappen vs Norris on the agenda.

So there are two ways this can go for their friendship. Either it gets resolved, there’s a handshake on media day and both drivers talk about putting it behind them, or they stop talking to each other off track, and their interactions become more businesslike, more formal, less fun.

I think this is where head meets heart meets soul. Norris and Verstappen may want to stay friendly, but very few athletes get better by being close to their closest rival.

Formula 1, now suddenly with an intensified rivalry between the top two drivers in the standings, moves to Silverstone and a home race for most of the teams. There is still a lot of intrigue as to who is actually quickest on track. Not one person - especially not the Mercedes team - would have said that it was George Russell going into the weekend, but the British driver is the fifth different race winner this season. We haven’t seen that since 2022, when Russell won Round 21 in Brazil. In 2024, it’s taken 11 rounds to get to five race winners. There is more than one way to win a race, and in George Russell’s case, it’s by just being there.

Minor editorial note: This was going to be an article about Formula 2 which is going to drop midweek instead.