Lando Norris, now a regular at the front of the grid, feels he and Max Verstappen will have more crashes.
McLaren driver Norris and Red Bull’s Verstappen are good friends, but for the first time in F1 2024, the two have found themselves in wheel-to-wheel combat on a regular basis, with McLaren, like Mercedes, having erased Red Bull’s buffer that had allowed them to dominate the F1 ground effect era.
Lando Norris expects to ‘crash more’ with Max Verstappen
The first flashpoint between the two occurred during the Austrian Grand Prix, when Norris and Verstappen clashed while dueling for the lead, resulting in punctures for both drivers. Verstappen was forced to settle for fifth place, while Norris’ race was done. The initial exchange of words between the two drivers would quickly cool.
However, now that Norris is firmly entrenched in that battle at the front, he feels future clashes will follow, including more shunts with Verstappen.
“I expect to crash more in the future, with different people, including Max,” Norris told RacingNews365.
“Not because it’s an expectation of I expect to crash with them – it’s just those scenarios and circumstances always happen.”With another five or ten years in F1, you’ll encounter those situations at some moment.”
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Norris is Verstappen’s closest threat in the Drivers’ Championship, behind by 78 points; nonetheless, the Brit was recently presented with the argument that he is not ruthless enough to fully challenge Verstappen for the crown.
“I don’t care what other people say,” he said in response. “I’m a kind guy who tries to be respectful in any way he can. But that has nothing to do with what happens on track.
“As much as people want to just come up with their own thoughts and talk about these things, what happened 10 years ago and 15 and 20 years ago was completely different to now.”If I want, I can be a lot more of a d**k and act like an idiot, have that character, and make people believe that [ruthless], but I don’t need to or want to.
“I still want to tell jokes, have fun, and laugh. I’m simply enjoying my life.
“When I put on the helmet, I’ll do whatever it takes to win.” “I know what works for me, and I’ll stick with it.”
While Verstappen remains in a dominating position to win his fourth World Championship in a row, Red Bull faces a tough challenge from McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, with only 42 points separating the two teams with 10 rounds remaining.
