NASCAR Community Deems Max Verstappen the Culprit for Ruining Red Bull’s Home Race

The 2024 Austrian Grand Prix has concluded with an unexpected winner. The Mercedes driver, George Russell, emerged victorious, but to be honest, he just lucked out with the win. Thanks to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who were the out-and-out favorites and were 1-2 for most of the race but lost their heads.

Norris attempted a dive-bomb, but Verstappen tried to block him. The end result was the duo colliding and costing themselves the win, not that Russell was complaining. Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz Jr also inherited a free podium because of the late collision.

Naturally, everyone was divided on who was to blame for the incident. Unless the move looked absolutely egregious, Verstappen and Norris were hardly going to be held accountable. While they maintained that the other was the guilty party, people on social media began to take sides. The incident spread so far that it even spilled over to the NASCAR fandom, and they too began to take sides.

Did Max Verstappen and Lando Norris have to collide?

Truthfully, there were still a handful of laps remaining in the race. Lando Norris had been looking quite racy, and the McLaren was clearly the fastest car all weekend. Some would even suggest that they saw the incident coming from a mile away. This was largely because, since the sprint race, Norris had been attempting dive-bombs at Verstappen for the race lead. More often than not, they failed, and he got compromised.

So when he attempted it again, Verstappen was not about to make things easy for him. The Dutchman tried to squeeze the Briton to the outside, and they ended up colliding. The end result was punctures for each car and a pair of bruised egos. Norris eventually retired from the race, while Max Verstappen went on to finish 5th, despite a 10-second time penalty.

The American motorsports journalist for The Athletic, Jeff Gluck, who is best known for his coverage of NASCAR races, took it to X to figure out what fans suggest of the fiery F1 weekend. He passed down the question, “Who was at fault?” While it was Max Verstappen who got the most votes, there were some crazy answers in the comments.

Talking of the race, the ones who came out of it, smelling like daisies, were the Brit George Russell, Papaya’s Oscar Piastri, and Carlos Sainz Jr. All they had to do was not try any stupid stunts, as demonstrated by Norris and Verstappen. Again, the tussle was unnecessary because there were a handful of laps remaining.

Norris could have either been patient, or Verstappen could have let him go and regrouped later. In the end, what’s done is done, and there’s no changing the result.

NASCAR fans lay the blame at Verstappen’s feet

One of the biggest points of contention in Formula One is moving while under braking. In theory, this is dangerous because it increases the risk of an accident. That way, Max Verstappen should be in the wrong, and some NASCAR fans thought so. One fan declared, “Zero question, Max.”

Others observed that the Red Bull star was going too hard on the Papaya driver and suggested the former gave no room to the latter; “Max squeezed him and gave him no room,” and one fan admitted, “Max just buckled under pressure. Plain and simple.” Some couldn’t fathom how Lando Norris could have been the culprit.

One response said, “If you say Lando, what are you watching?”, while the other sounded 100% sure about Max leaving no room for Lando, as the fan wrote, “Definitely hard racing but just squeezed too much. It’s a corner that’s just asking for an accident.”

A few Verstappen critics said, “Max has been so far ahead the last few years he hasn’t been able to show how genuinely dirty of a driver he can be at times.” Meanwhile, another person justified their answer by suggesting that Max gave back as well as he could take it. They said, “Well max was at fault but max raced lando the same way lando raced max.”

And there was this one user who took it to the entire sport, the way it operates, and the culture they have, writing, “It’s the fault of F1 driving culture and inconsistent stewarding for having absolutely no clue how to race side by side (particularly at this track)”

It was a good race in all. Seeing someone else win, apart from Max Verstappen, is always fun. And Motorsports fans enjoy the wrecks, be it Denny racing Chastain for a win, or Lando racing the defending champion. Always a good race!