McLaren joins Red Bull in the social media war

Max Verstappen paid Lando Norris the ultimate compliment with his no-holds-barred defending in Austria.

The Red Bull driver would not have wasted such a move on a driver he did not regard as a genuine threat. He didn’t make Charles Leclerc fight that hard over the same win two years ago, even with a smaller championship lead, because he knew better days lay ahead. Sure enough, Leclerc and Ferrari didn’t win another race that year.

But the Norris situation is different. Aside from the extreme outlier track of Monaco, Verstappen and Norris monopolised the top two places at every round since the Chinese Grand Prix heading into last weekend. And they would have done so again in Austria, had Verstappen not squeezed Norris too hard heading into turn three on the 64th lap.

Two years ago Red Bull knew there was much more to come from the RB18, which was aerodynamically sound but overweight. Since then the opposition has closed in and everyone, Red Bull included, are chasing much smaller gains. “We expect it to be very, very close between now and the rest of the year,” said team principal Christian Horner before last weekend’s race.

Verstappen has amassed a healthy championship lead but there are still many points to play for in Formula 1’s longest season ever, which reaches its halfway point this weekend. Norris moved into second place in the championship at the Spanish Grand Prix, and though he lay 69 points off Verstappen heading into Austria, there were still 396 available.

For much of last year Verstappen was so far ahead in the standings that not only did he not need to fight hard for points against other drivers, his rivals knew going wheel-to-wheel against him was usually a waste of time. But right now every point matters. McLaren are matching Red Bull for single-lap performance to within a narrow margin of error.

What’s more, McLaren still have a development advantage over Red Bull under F1’s performance-handicapping Aerodynamic Testing Regulations. Red Bull have consistently led the constructors’ championship, and therefore are entitled to less development time.

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Verstappen is therefore not going to let a single point slip his grasp until his fourth drivers’ title is locked down. And it will not be lost on Norris or McLaren that while Verstappen copped the penalty in Austria, he won the day, adding another 10 points to his…