Lando Norris Reminds Max Verstappen of His 51G Shunt After the Dutchman Admits Being Too Cautious at British GP

Lando Norris had a brilliant home race at the British GP as he finished P2 behind Max Verstappen. Right after the race, as Norris and Verstappen sat in the cooldown room and discussed the race, the Briton reminded Verstappen about his horrible 51G crash in Silverstone two years ago.

The 2021 title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen had quite a few talking points, from their crash in Monza right up to the collision in Saudi Arabia. However, the most horrific crash between them happened in Silverstone when Verstappen was shunted off the track at Copse and into the barrier by Hamilton.

The crash in Silverstone was the first major spark in the 2021 season, which was filled with fireworks. Verstappen made it clear that he hasn’t forgotten the incident even now as he reminisced about it following his minor brush with the wall while coming out of the pits during Qualifying.

Verstappen said after the Qualifying session, “The last time that I hit a wall properly was here a couple of years ago, so… These things happen.” After the race ended, the topic came up once again as Norris and Verstappen spoke to each other about the first lap of the race.

Max Verstappen had flashbacks of Silverstone 2021 during the race

As the drivers settled down in the cooldown room after the race, Verstappen and Norris took the opportunity to have a chat. Norris brought up the topic of how the Safety Car ruined his teammate Oscar Piastri’s chance of getting a podium finish. In reply to this, Verstappen revealed that during his first lap battle with Piastri, he was praying that his car didn’t understeer into Piastri who was on the outside.

“I was side by side with Oscar into Copse. I was like ‘Don’t understeer, don’t understeer’,” said Verstappen. Norris immediately replied, “Don’t do like a couple of years ago.” reminding Verstappen about the infamous incident.

The race was not as easy as expected for Verstappen. He had a bit of wheelspin at the start, which caused him to lose position to Norris. Then he had issues with managing his tire temperature which allowed Norris to charge back within DRS range. However, despite all of these issues, Verstappen registered his 43rd win and Red Bull’s 11th in a row.

Others are finally catching up to the Red Bull?

With how the British GP panned out, it seems as if some of the other teams are slowly catching up to Red Bull. After starting off the season in P17 and P20, McLaren has made huge progress and has fought through the field to have a podium-worthy car finally.

This might be fuel for other teams to get inspiration from and focus on their development even more. However, Red Bull is not joking around either. Verstappen revealed to Viaplay after the British GP that the Milton-Keynes outfit will bring new upgrades to the Hungarian GP.

This might spell trouble for other teams. Even with the current car, Verstappen is dominating the whole field like they are driving some other class of cars. With the new upgrades in place, the Red Bull may become even more dominant and untouchable.