Lando Norris teases more Max Verstappen crashes to come after Austria drama

Now a regular face towards the front of the grid, Lando Norris believes he and Max Verstappen have more crashes to come.

McLaren driver Norris and Red Bull’s Verstappen are good friends, but for the first time in F1 2024, the duo have found themselves in wheel-to-wheel combat on the track regularly, with McLaren, like Mercedes, having eliminated Red Bull’s buffer that had seen them dominate the F1 ground effect era.

Lando Norris expects to ‘crash more’ with Max Verstappen

The first flashpoint between the pair arrived at the Austrian GP as Norris and Verstappen collided while battling for the lead, resulting in punctures for both drivers. For Verstappen, he was restricted to P5, while it was race over for Norris. An initial waw-of-words between the two drivers would soon cool.

However, with Norris now firmly inserted in that battle at the front, he believes future collisions will come with that, including more shunts with Verstappen.

“I expect to crash more in the future with different people, with 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 10 years in F1, you’re going to have those situations at some point.”

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Norris is Verstappen’s closest threat in the Drivers’ Championship, Norris 78 points behind, however, the Brit was recently presented with the theory that he is not ruthless enough to truly take a title fight to Verstappen.

“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.”

While Verstappen remains in a commanding position to make it four World Championship titles in a row, Red Bull face a serious threat from McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship , who are now only 42 points behind with 10 rounds of the season to go.

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