Max Verstappen says that drivers have to exploit “grey areas” when racing rivals in order to be successful. Verstappen made a comment in the wake of his controversial battle with Lando Norris in the Austrian GP when the pair made contact, and the Dutch driver picked up a 10-second penalty.
The two friends spoke about their fight on the Monday after the race, and again on Wednesday, and appear to have put it behind them.
“Naturally, I always said to Lando, when you go for moves up the inside, the outside, you can trust me that I’m not there to try and crash you out of the way,” said Verstappen.
“Same the other way around because we spoke about that as well.
“Because naturally, there’s always a human reaction when someone dives up the inside or outside, that you have a bit of a reaction to it, but I felt everything that I did was nothing massively over the top.
“Of course, like how you design a car, you try to go to the edge of the rules. Maybe you find some grey areas here and there as a car, and that’s the same as how you race.
“Because otherwise, you will never be a top driver, and you will never succeed in life anyway.”
Verstappen said it was important for him to make peace with Norris, given the tensions in the immediate aftermath of the Austrian race.
“The only thing that I cared about is, of course, maintaining my relationship with Lando,” he said. “Because we are great friends. After the race, I said we have to just let things cool down, because emotions run high.
“And we immediately spoke on Monday, and I think we came to the conclusion that we actually really enjoyed our battle.
“We looked at the incident. It was such a silly little touch that had, of course, great consequences for both of us. And, of course, naturally a bit more for Lando with how the puncture then evolved.
“But we like to race hard. We’ve done this for many years, not only in F1, even like online racing, where we had a lot of fun together. And these things have to carry on because that’s what we like to do. And I think it’s great for F1 as well.”
Asked if it is possible to maintain a friendship with a driver that you battle with regularly, Verstappen said:
“I think it also depends a bit on your personalities. He’s a great guy, he’s a really nice person who loves F1, of course – he loves racing. He’s just very passionate about it, naturally also after the race.
“You also have to probably realise, he’s fighting for his second potential win, I’m fighting for my 62nd win. I think, naturally, your emotions are a little bit different. Because I know that for myself when I was fighting for these first wins in F1. But that’s fine.
“That’s why I also said, let’s just let it cool off a bit, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
Regarding a potential clarification of the FIA’s racing rules he said: “I think we have already way too many rules in general for everything. So I think that will only make it more complicated.”
