Davide Valsecchi: I hope Max never changes

Davide Valschecchi, a former driver who won the GP2 title in 2012 and now a commentator for Sky Italia and presenter of the Italian version of Top Gear, gave his own commentary on the circumstances of the duel between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the Red Bull Ring.

Davide Valsecchi: “I really enjoyed the Austrian Grand Prix, although the drivers who claimed victory, in my opinion, went a bit further than was allowed. It cannot be said that Max Verstappen and Lando Norris behaved completely correctly on the track, but it was very interesting to watch their duel.

It all ended in a clash, so neither one nor the other got the victory, but honestly I enjoyed their battle.

Recently, there have been many opinions that Max has calmed down a bit, has become a more mature professional, that he already has three titles, so he can afford to be calmer, more careful and less arrogant on the track. But personally, I hope he never changes.

Everyone in the paddock knows that if you want to get ahead of Verstappen, you have to make some extreme moves, and every successful overtake can be the best of your career. Otherwise, nothing will work.

Everyone knows that he is an extremely aggressive racer, that he reacts very hard to every attack attempt. Verstappen’s strength is that he is the current world champion, but during the race in Austria we saw that he is not 100% invincible.

Max believes that if he leads the race, he will either win or the race can end in a double retirement. And I like this attitude, although some people think it is too much.

I agree that the maneuver that caused Lando to retreat was probably too aggressive – Max overstepped the boundaries and was punished for it. Sometimes he simply cannot accept that someone can beat him, and in defending his position he has taken actions that go beyond the rules.

For example, he switched at the end of the braking zone, but believe me: in such acute situations it is not so easy to make clear decisions. You can keep an eye on your opponent, but in the braking zone it is not always possible to understand in the rear-view mirrors how he behaves.

At the end of the braking, Max could see in the mirror that Lando had launched an attack, which had started when he was still quite far away, and decided to move a little to the side. Norris later complained about this as well, although I believe Max’s actions were initially acceptable. The FIA ​​decided so at the time, but when Lando made his final attempt, Verstappen moved too much to the outside of the track, which resulted in contact between the cars.

In my opinion, this was already a mistake, and it seems to me that he realized it after the race. If he kept repeating in similar situations that the maneuver was correct, and the FIA ​​​​judged it wrong, he said nothing like that now. Maybe he will apologize to Norris in a few days.

But personally I liked this: finally we saw a Formula 1 again. I had missed these impressions for three years, but these guys raised the competition level as high as possible and took real risks on the track. In my opinion, we haven’t seen anything like this since the confrontation between Max and Lewis Hamilton.

And we haven’t seen anyone willing to challenge Max and overtake him on track for three years now. But it seems that Norris is already at Verstappen’s level.”