Is the Max Verstappen-Lando Norris bromance over? F1 Austrian GP talking points

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ dramatic late collision paved the way for George Russell to claim an unlikely win for Mercedes at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Crash.net F1 editor Lewis Larkam rounds up his takeaways from being on the ground at the 11th round of the 2024 season…

Can Max Verstappen and Lando Norris stay friends?

Locked in a fierce, no-holds-barred duel for the lead of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, some hard racing between Verstappen and Norris finally resulted in a collision.

The coming together angered McLaren and drew comparisons to the titanic battles between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton during their blockbuster title fight in 2021.

It marked the first time that Verstappen and Norris had properly clashed in wheel-to-wheel combat. But following close scraps in Miami, Imola, Canada and Spain, there was a feeling of inevitability about the crash.

“I think it’s inevitable, [given] how close they’ve been racing the last few weeks. It’s a shame,” was Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s summary of the incident.

Norris hit out at Verstappen’s “reckless” and “desperate” driving following the clash which wrecked both their races, and said he expects an apology from the three-time world champion.

"If he says he did nothing wrong, then I'll lose a lot of respect for that,” the 24-year-old Briton told Sky Sports F1.

Verstappen and Norris are good mates. They often enjoy padel together and share flights to races. So will this first real flashpoint between the pair test their friendship?

“Maybe they won’t play padel tomorrow, but I’m sure they’ll talk about it,” Horner concluded. “They’re two hard racers, they’ll talk about things openly, I’ve got no doubt about that.

“Inevitably friendships are put under pressure when you’re competing hard.”

Mercedes soon to be fighting for wins on merit?

Russell capitalised on the drama between Verstappen and Norris to claim an unexpected first victory of the season for Mercedes, and the team’s first win since 2022.

Mercedes have been making encouraging progress in recent races amid an aggressive development push, but the Silver Arrows have largely been challenging for the final spot on the podium, rather than victories, of late.

Toto Wolff could not pretend the win was achieved on merit and even joked that Mercedes currently “need two to crash at the front to win at the moment”. Nevertheless, he is buoyed by Mercedes’ upward trajectory and is confident the team will reach a point where they are fighting for victories on pure performance before the end of the current campaign.

“On pace, we were the third-quickest car,” Wolff told media including Crash.net on Sunday. “And we’ve been this way the last three weekends and that is very encouraging to see that upward trend and the consolidation of the trend.

“There’s certainly big momentum now in the team to go to a point where we are able on real performance to fight for the win. And I think we will be.”

Should Sergio Perez’s form be worrying Red Bull?

Austria proved to be another weekend to forget for Sergio Perez.

After starting 2024 with four podiums in the opening five rounds, the Mexican has failed to reach the rostrum since - partly due to a string of underwhelming qualifying displays.

Perez finished 17 seconds behind Verstappen in Saturday’s 23-lap sprint race and could only qualify seventh for Sunday’s grand prix, nine tenths down on his teammate.

He then endured a miserable run to seventh in the main race. Perez was beaten to sixth in the closing stages by Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, and finished 17 seconds behind Verstappen, despite the Dutchman’s various dramas (including a 10-second time penalty).

Horner once again moved to defend Perez, who was recently handed a fresh two-year contract, amid increasing question marks over his recent form. The Red Bull team boss revealed Perez lost “a big hole” in the sidepod of his RB20 after first-lap contact with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and stressed the damage severely hampered his straight line speed.

Alpines clash again as Haas grab big result

The Alpines came to blows once again at the Austrian Grand Prix, with Pierre Gasly left feeling aggrieved after claiming he had been pushed off the track by teammate Esteban Ocon in the early stages.

"What the ***? What was that? Why did he just run me off the track!” Gasly cried over team radio after their Turn 3 tangle.

The pair were able to keep it clean in a later wheel-to-wheel battle as Ocon went on to claim the final point on offer for the steadily-improving French outfit.

Alpine’s midfield rivals Haas scored their biggest result of the season to date as Hulkenberg brilliantly pipped Perez to sixth, while teammate Kevin Magnussen came home eighth for a total of 12 points.

Only the second double points haul of the season has seen the American outfit leapfrog Alpine into seventh place in the constructors’ championship. Haas went into the Austria weekend a point behind Alpine but now find themselves 10 ahead - and just 11 behind RB.

Carlos Sainz future takes a twist

It emerged over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that Carlos Sainz’s future has taken a fresh twist, with reports linking the Spaniard with a possible switch to Alpine.

The outgoing Ferrari driver is understood to have firm offers already on the table from Williams and Sauber, but Autosport and The Race both reported that Alpine have now made a late bid for his services for 2025.

According to The Race, Sainz has delayed a decision about which team to join next season because “Alpine has told him it could become a Mercedes customer” in 2026. The report goes on to claim that the “situation changed after Renault recruited Flavio Briatore as executive advisor and started to weigh up whether to abandon its works engine programme”.

Sainz is the key to how the rest of the 2025 driver market will unfold, but it seems what appeared to be a straight choice between just two teams has just been made more complicated.