The Hamilton v Rosberg relationship comparison as Norris v Verstappen title fight heats up

Ex-Formula 2 racer Clement Novalak believes this year will be a test of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ friendship if the championship fight evolves further.

Verstappen has a 78-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship over Norris, as the McLaren driver attempts to close the sizeable lead with what appears to now be the quicker and more versatile F1 car.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris clash ‘blown out of proportion’

While Verstappen started the season with all the momentum as the Red Bull RB20 proved dominant for the first quarter of the championship, Norris has had the more competitive machine in the races leading into the summer break after scoring his maiden win in Miami.

With Norris and Verstappen fighting over wins, their friendship was tested as the pair clashed while vying for the win in Austria – leading to Norris initially calling for an apology from Verstappen.

Given the minor contact which led to the calamity, Verstappen was more circumspect and calm in his assessment and, while he didn’t apologise, he made it clear that he was eager to ensure his friendship with Norris was unharmed – the British driver later retracted his calls for an apology as tensions cooled.

Speaking about the matter on the Track Limits podcast, former Formula 2 racer Clement Novalak – now racing in the LMP2 category in IMSA and the European Le Mans Series – said he felt the issue between the pair had been exacerbated by the timing of their interviews.

“Formula 1 media gets most of their content five minutes after they’ve exited the car, right? So it’s not usually the time when drivers really have a calm mind – and then they’re sent straight right to the media pen!” he said.

“Obviously, Lando is a little bit angry. In reality, I think, you know, you have racing incidents with your friends as well on track. I’ve got a few friends that I’ve crashed into, and they’ve crashed into me at times. And do you know what? After saying a couple of swear words, we’re like, ‘Ah, it’s all right. Actually, we’re all good, aren’t we? It’s fine’.

“In reality, it was a little bit blown out of proportion.”

Friendships between drivers turning sour due to on-track rivalry are nothing new to F1, with the most recent famous example being that of childhood pals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton falling out as they fought over titles as teammates at Mercedes between 2014 and ’16.

Novolak referenced this relationship as he suggested how the rest of this year’s title fight evolves could end up challenging the friendship between Norris and Verstappen.

“I think they’re two very different characters, so it’s quite interesting how they are friends now and, if it develops into a full championship fight, how that could change,” he said.

“Because there were two very good friends on the grid about 10 years ago [Hamilton & Rosberg], and we saw how that changed. So let’s see.

“I love a rivalry, so if it can turn into that, that’d be quite cool to watch. But, at the same time, obviously, they’re good mates, so you don’t wish it.”

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Max Verstappen: Lando Norris and myself are great friends

While the same can’t be said for McLaren’s senior management, both Norris and Verstappen had patched things up by the next race and the Dutch driver spoke of the importance to him of Norris’ friendship.

“For me, the only thing that I care about is maintaining my relationship with Lando because we are great friends,” he said.

“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.

“But we both looked at the incident and it was such a silly little touch that had great consequences for both of us. 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 Formula 1, even online racing, but we had a lot of fun together.”

As for Norris, who is far less experienced than Verstappen at handling difficult relationships fighting for victories and championships as McLaren have given him a car capable of victory for the first time this year, the British driver has been accused of being too soft in his on-track approach towards racing friends such as Verstappen – something he outright refutes.

“I don’t care what people say,” he began in response to that. “I’m a nice guy and I try to be respectful in every way that I can. But that has absolutely zero relevance for 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 persona and make people think that [ruthless], but I don’t need to and I don’t want to.

“I still want to make jokes, have fun and laugh. I’m just enjoying my life and it is as simple as that.

“When I put the helmet on, I will do what I have to do to win. I know what works for me and I will stick to that.”

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