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MEXICO CITY — With the papaya McLaren of Lando Norris, his Formula One title rival, starting to fill his mirrors, Max Verstappen hung right through the final corner and dove into the pits.
It’s a process he has done hundreds of times in F1 races throughout his career. But this stop was a far cry from the world record pace his Red Bull pit crew is known for.
After pulling his car to a halt, everyone froze. Each pit crew member held still, poised to service the car but not daring to touch it.
Verstappen waited. And waited. And waited. A full 20 seconds ticked by before the signal was given, the mechanics coming to life to instantly change Verstappen’s tires in a couple of seconds before sending him on his way.
It was a result of two penalties that could come to define not only Verstappen’s championship fight against Norris but also their rivalry.
One week on from their Austin battle that reignited the debate over F1’s racing rules after Norris’ controversial penalty, he and Verstappen again went wheel-to-wheel 10 laps into the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday. And this time, it was Verstappen who got dinged.
In his trademark elbows-out, no-margin-given fashion, Verstappen left zero room for Norris at Turn 4, forcing the McLaren driver to take to the grass. Norris had to rejoin ahead of Verstappen, who then made a second lunge as they came to the fast, left-hand Turn 8.
Verstappen didn’t get close to making the corner, forcing Norris to take evasive action. “This guy is dangerous!” Norris exclaimed to his engineer.
What a moment in the story of this season’s World Championship 🤯🤯#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/nTZfYjDcMy
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 27, 2024
Norris has frequently embraced the toughness of his skirmishes with Verstappen. But even he knew this was over the line. So did the stewards. Two self-inflicted 10-second time penalties — one for forcing Norris off the track at Turn 4 and a second for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Turn 8 — left Verstappen’s race in tatters.
Verstappen was dismissive on the radio upon being informed of the penalty, pointing the finger at Norris. “And how about him then, Turn 4? That’s fine then?” he said, referring to Norris staying ahead. “That’s silly, man.”
Once Verstappen served his penalty in the pits, he emerged all the way back in 15th. While he recovered to sixth, it meant Norris (who finished second) reduced the gap at the top of the standings to 47 points with four rounds to go.
Verstappen brushed off the penalty after the race. “Honestly, 20 seconds is a lot, but I’m not going to cry about it, and I’m not going to share my opinion,” he said. Nor did he have much to say about the driver guidelines for overtaking, the rule set that polices what is and is not allowed in those wheel-to-wheel fights.
“I just drive how I think I have to drive,” he said. His greater worry was Red Bull’s lack of pace compared to McLaren and Ferrari.
As separate as it may be to their off-track friendship — a camaraderie shared across padel courts and Twitch streams — the on-track tension has grown again between Norris and Verstappen after this third flashpoint, following Austria and Austin. Norris was quick to mention his respect for Verstappen upon jumping out of the car for the parc fermé interviews but did not let that cloud his judgment.
“This is not very clean driving, in my opinion,” Norris said.
He opened up further in the post-race press conference, explaining how he was driving just to avoid crashing when fighting Verstappen. And he noted the championship dynamic: with a 47-point lead, Verstappen is in a “very powerful position” and has “nothing to lose” in these fights.
“I go into a race expecting a tough battle with Max,” Norris said. “It’s clear that it doesn’t matter if he wins or is second. His only job is to beat me in the race. And he’ll sacrifice himself to do that, like he did today.”
Outlining what ‘fair’ is when fighting on the track in F1 is the challenge the stewards need to try and solve — particularly when dealing with a driver as aggressive as Verstappen. Verstappen’s 2021 tussles with Lewis Hamilton, notably their tangle at Brazil where Verstappen ran off the track multiple times trying to stay ahead of Mercedes, showed just how much he was willing to push those rules when embroiled in a title fight.
The action taken against Verstappen in Mexico is the harshest sanction Verstappen has faced yet for his driving. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff felt it would “set a precedent now” to what drivers could or could not do while dueling on track. He suggested that so long as the rules and their implementation permitted a certain way of racing, then drivers would always take what advantage they could.
“A driver like Max is always going to exploit it,” Wolff said. “I think now there has been a new interoperation and execution of those regulations, and I think it will change the way everybody races in the future. You won’t see that anymore.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also wanted clarity — but not because of what Verstappen did. Instead, it was because of what he and the team felt Norris had done at Turn 4.
Horner arrived at his post-race media session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez holding a telemetry printout that showed Norris’ data from the Lap 10 incident and from his fastest lap of the grand prix. He claimed that Norris was going so fast on the outside at Turn 4 that it would have been impossible for the McLaren to have made the corner — but that doing so meant Norris was ahead at the apex and, therefore, had the ‘right’ to the corner.
“You can see quite clearly he’s effectively come off the brakes, gone in super, super late to try and win that argument as far as the way these regulations are written,” Horner said. “Then at that point, you’re penalized.”
Horner denied that was the same thing Verstappen had done in Austin when defending on the inside against Norris when he had launched up the inside and gone off the track, but was adjudged to be ahead at the apex and therefore had the ‘right’ to the corner. “Max hasn’t actually gone off the track,” Horner said. “He’s stayed within the perimeter. It’s something that really does need to get tidied up moving forward.
“There’s great racing going on, and it’s just important that the rules of engagement are fair, rather than giving an advantage to the outside line, which is always, in the history of motorsport, being on the outside has always been the more risky place to be.
“Now, it’s almost the advantage because all you’ve got to do is have your nose ahead at the point they turn in, irrelevant if you’re going to make the corner or not.”
It suggests there is no anticipation from Red Bull that Verstappen, after receiving this penalty, is going to change his approach moving forward. And at a time when the racing guidelines are already being discussed so intensively by the drivers, with changes planned for the penultimate race of the year in Qatar, it’ll only stoke the fire for the next time that Verstappen and Norris tangle on the race track.
“All I would do is encourage there is a constructive discussion between the drivers and the driver steward to say, OK, we’re going to have another four hotly contested races — what is and isn’t acceptable?” Horner said.
Regardless of the outcome of any potential discussions, Verstappen will not shy away from his aggressive brand of racing, especially in the heat of a championship fight when the Red Bull car has not given him the performance or confidence he needs to comfortably clinch a fourth title.
Norris has always wanted close racing against Verstappen. Earlier this year, he even relished those first proper battles. But is it going to be possible? He shrugged when he was asked post-race, saying all he could do was focus on himself.
“I’ll race fairly,” he said. “If he doesn’t, then things will go like they did today. I think he wants to race fairly. I hope he does. I think he enjoys those moments too when it’s a fair battle.
“All I can do is keep doing what I’m doing. I feel like I’m doing a good job. We’ll see what happens.”
Top photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
