Norris ready to move on after discussing Austria clash with Verstappen

Lando Norris says he no longer believes Max Verstappen needs to apologise to him for the collision between the two men that ended his race at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision after swerving left into Norris on his outside under braking at Turn 3 of the Red Bull Ring, a corner where the two men battled for several laps. Norris was unhappy with the way Verstappen defended and said at the time that he felt he had not been given a fair fight and that any discussion should start with an apology from the Dutchman. However, upon arriving at the British Grand Prix, he changed his mind.

“I honestly don’t think he needed to apologize,” Norris said. “I think some of the things I said in the pen after the race were more out of frustration at the time. A lot of adrenaline and emotion, and I probably said things I didn’t necessarily believe, especially later in the week.

“It was tough. It was a pretty pathetic incident, in terms of what ended both of our races. It wasn’t like a collision, it wasn’t like an obvious contact. It was probably one of the smallest contacts you can have, but with pretty terrible consequences for both of us, especially for me.

“Yeah, he doesn’t need to. I don’t expect him to apologise, I don’t think he should apologise. I thought it was a good race, as a balance sheet. Sometimes it was maybe very close to the limit, but we talked about it and we’re both happy to be racing again.”

Norris, however, wants the FIA ​​to crack down on braking manoeuvres.

“I think it was always very clear that this was going to happen,” he said, referring to the braking move. “It’s a tricky one. Max is not going to want to crash, he’s not going to want to ruin his own race or his own chances. So I think yeah, there’s definitely things I need to do slightly differently. I don’t think he’s going to change too much. I am will change a lot.

“Could we have avoided the accident? Absolutely. Is there anything I could have done? I could have easily used more curbs. But there are things on both sides that I’m sure we wanted to do better or in a slightly different way.

“Overall, avoiding an incident due to braking is the most important element. An incident could very easily happen because of something like that, and I think if there’s one thing you have to be very careful about, it’s that it’s something that could happen.

“So that’s something that the stewards and the FIA ​​have to be aware of in the future: something could easily go wrong. So I think up to a certain point you defend yourself, you’re aggressive, and that’s OK. But there will be a point where there’s a limit, and I think that needs to be defined in a slightly better way.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella claimed the battle with Verstappen led to incidents that could have been avoided if they had been resolved during the 2021 title battle that also involved Lewis Hamilton, and while Hamilton disagreed with Stella’s comments, Norris backed his boss.

“I’m sure Lewis would have agreed with that two or three years ago! 100 percent,” he said. “There were definitely a few moments in particular. I think Andrea has a very good sensitivity in the subjects he talks about.

“Some things are always different when you’re a little more in the moment… but overall I agree with what Andrea says.”