Speaking to F1 TV, McLaren driver Lando Norris has said he is “divided” over whether the incidents involving Max Verstappen on track have damaged his friendship with the Dutchman.
This season Verstappen started very strong and managed to win no less than four times in the first five races. There was no opposition for a long time. However, Verstappen and Norris have clashed several times since the Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna. Think back to the Grands Prix of Austria, the United States and Mexico City.
Norris ‘divided’ over friendship with Verstappen
In the media after the race at the Red Bull Ring, Norris said that his relationship with Verstappen would change if Verstappen did not apologize. Norris has since renounced those statements, but when asked whether his friendship with Verstappen suffered from their incidents on track, the Briton said in Brazil that he was “divided” about it .
“I don’t know, I’m torn. In some ways you think how you are in person and how you interact with people can be so different to how you are on the track. It’s such a different world there on the track than here (in the paddock, ed.) ,” Norris said.
“It’s the first time I’ve been in this situation and time will tell how it changes. But for now I still respect Max, I think he respects me, but maybe ask me again at the end of the year ,” Norris told F1 TV in the Autódromo José Carlos Pace paddock.
No conversation necessary
Ahead of the race in Brazil, Norris said he had not yet felt the need to sit down with Verstappen to discuss their series of on-track incidents.
“I don’t think that’s necessary. I have nothing to say. I still have a lot of respect for Max and everything he does – not respect for what he did last weekend [in Mexico] – but respect for him as a person and also what he has achieved. But it’s not for me to talk to him ,” said the Briton.
“I’m not his teacher. I’m not his mentor or anything like that. Max knows what he has to do. He knows he did wrong. Deep down he knows that, and it’s up to him to change ,” Norris said.