At Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi season finale 12 months Lando Norris, firmly corrected a journalist from another publication who made the mistake of describing Max Verstappen as his ‘BFF’ – i.e. ‘best friend forever’.
“Don’t ever say that again,” Norris snapped. “We respect each other and we get along. Kind of friends away, but that’s it. We just have a lot of respect for one another. That’s it.”
At the time, no one knew this year’s championship fight would principally involve those two drivers. But by the time Verstappen clinched the crown two rounds ago, had Norris diminished the view he’s a bit too cosy with his supposed rival?
Whenever the pair met on the track this year, Verstappen usually got the upper hand. Granted, he always had the benefit of being the hunted rather than the hunter, which brought with it the knowledge any mutually destructive collision would be to his advantage.
Even so, Norris never succeeded in making life uncomfortable for Verstappen. They collided at the Red Bull Ring, for which Verstappen was penalised, yet the defending champion still out-scored his challenger. Verstappen deployed his ‘divebomb defence’ to useful effect in Austin. Even in Mexico, where Norris out-scored Verstappen, the Red Bull driver’s cynical lunge at turn seven successfully prevented the McLaren driver from winning the race and maximise his points scored.
Other drivers have pushed Verstappen far enough to provoke a reaction. This was clearest during his bitter 2021 world championship fight with Lewis Hamilton.
But another driver has demonstrated an ability to get under his skin: Hamilton’s soon-to-be-ex-team mate George Russell. Even before he joined Mercedes (though while he was one of their junior talents) Russell needled his future rival.
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Late in 2020 he spoke up for Verstappen’s struggling team mate Alexander Albon, saying he was “being made to look like an idiot” by Red Bull. Verstappen was not impressed by the slight on his team, responding: “George doesn’t know anything about the team so I think it’s better he just focuses on his car and his performance instead of speaking for someone else.”
Last weekend, Verstappen was left fuming when the stewards penalised him for getting in Russell’s way during qualifying. He accused the Mercedes driver of trying to get him a penalty,…
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