F1 News
Brown respects Verstappen: 'Every champion has those attributes'
- Ludo van Denderen
In the first part of the season, there was one Grand Prix that was long talked about afterwards: the race in Austria, where Max Verstappen and Lando Norris clashed for the first time. Notably, Zak Brown, McLaren's CEO, has maintained for weeks that it was Verstappen's fault that the Red Bull and McLaren cars clashed.
For his part, Norris was quick to say that the incident was finished as far as he was concerned and Verstappen had not actually done that much wrong. A reversal with the words immediately after the race, when Norris was seething at his good friend Verstappen. Was Norris showing a sign of weakness here? Because a champion would never openly backtrack on his words; at least Verstappen never does.
Verstappen describes Verstappen in two words
Brown does not believe Norris was cracked by Verstappen: "No, I don't think so at all," the American recently told GPblog and others. He then also showed some admiration for Verstappen. "Show me a World Champion and I think ruthless and aggressive will be two good descriptions of any world champion or Grand Prix-winning driver."
So Brown may have been critical of Verstappen after Austria, but he would by no means say the Dutchman's driving style was rash. "I don't think it would be fair to characterise it as Max's driving. I think, as Toto mentioned, you see battles all throughout the field and so I think we just need regulations that are black and white and enforced accordingly. I don't think it would be fair to say Max is driving. I think all these drivers drive at the absolute limit as they should," Brown said.