The dilemmas Norris must face in his wheel-to-wheel battles with Verstappen

The two F1 title protagonists have contested dramatic wheel-to-wheel battles over the last two grands prix

As Lando Norris knuckles down for what is becoming an increasingly intense title fight with Max Verstappen, he is going to have to accept he cannot bring a knife to a gunfight.

Verstappen has left both Norris and Formula 1 in no doubt that he is willing to go to the limit – and even beyond it – when it comes to ensuring he does not let a fourth world title slip through his grasp.

His clinical defensive tactics – making sure he eases off the brakes to get to that apex first – have become more obvious after the spotlight on F1’s Driving Standards Guidelines that erupted in the wake of Austin.

But it was perhaps his aggressive move at Turn 8 in Mexico, where he launched a divebomb that forced Norris to take avoiding action to prevent a collision – that exposed his true mindset.

His obsession with beating Norris seems to come above everything else, because in both Austin (Turn 1) and Mexico (Turn 8), his focus on ensuring that he kept the McLaren in check left an open door for Ferrari to grab results that have helped it leapfrog Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

As Charles Leclerc cheekily said last weekend, after gaining both times from Norris/Verstappen incidents: “I welcome Max being as aggressive as possible to Lando, because it helps me.” Verstappen is clear that he is having to drive in this Norris-obsessed way because the pace of the Red Bull car has fallen away – so he cannot hold on simply by being out-and-out faster.

He admitted as much after Mexico: “The problem is that we are too slow, and that’s why I’m being put in those kind of positions.”

Verstappen certainly seemed unmoved by the furore surrounding his antics against Norris. He even suggested to Sky that the only thing he would do differently in repeat circumstances in the future would be to take a drink during his 20-second pit stop.

The attitude of doing whatever it takes to win the title, in a car that he knows is probably not good enough to win races right now, puts Norris in an edgy place – because the Briton recognises the risks for him in being exposed to a rival who is not afraid to squeeze him out. And it is in plotting the best approach to dealing with this situation that does not come easy.

In Mexico, Norris took the stance of staying out of trouble – knowing that he was much better off staying out of harm’s way to fight another day than holding his ground and risking an accident that would effectively kill off his title hopes.

That has certainly left him open to accusations that it gives Verstappen the psychological upper hand, because Norris has to always play a subservient role and be the one who avoids collisions happening.

But this is the reality of every championship fight in its closing stages; that the points leader always has the upper hand in being the one who has the luxury of being able to take more risks, and not have a massive downside if both cars go out.

Would Michael Schumacher have driven in exactly the same way in Adelaide 1994 or Jerez 1997 if he had gone into those season finales behind in the points? What about Ayrton Senna at Suzuka in 1990? Unlikely.

Norris knows that he cannot escape the reality that he is the hunter, not the hunted.

As he said about Verstappen on race night in Mexico: “He’s in a very powerful position in the championship. He’s a long way ahead. He has nothing to lose.

“People can say it’s the other way around, like he’s got everything to lose and it’s all for me. But it’s not the case.

“I’m focused on myself. I’m doing my own job, which was a good job today. And I’m happy with all of this and I’m happy with my whole weekend.

“But it’s not my job to control him. He knows how to drive. And I’m sure he knows that today [race day in Mexico] was probably a bit over the limit.”

It is clear that Norris can’t get his elbows out and risk a shunt, but there are two aces he has up his sleeves after Mexico as this fascinating title battle enters its final chapter.

The first is that the new floor McLaren has introduced worked and, in pace terms, the MCL38 still has what it takes to win races.

Even though it was Carlos Sainz who triumphed in Mexico City, had Norris not lost all that time behind Verstappen early on then things could have been very different.

It means that Norris and McLaren know that if they execute race weekends in a perfect manner then the fight takes care of itself – because they should not need to risk getting in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Verstappen. It should put them ahead.

This pace factor was something that McLaren itself told Norris to focus on as he found himself stuck behind Verstappen early on in Mexico.

Team principal Andrea Stella said: “The message we gave to Lando was ‘we have pace, if we can pass him, let’s do it’, because we knew at some stage that we could compete with Ferrari and we were losing time behind Max.

“But obviously, we didn’t need to say…Lando knew very well this overtaking needed to happen in a safe way because for us, we are competing on both fronts – the drivers’ championship and the constructors’ championship.”

There is another source of encouragement for Norris too, in that now he at least has some evidence that the FIA will step in and punish any behaviour that goes too far.

Had we left Mexico with Verstappen getting away with either or both of the clashes with Norris, then there would be tremendous uncertainty about how he should approach the racing from now – and deciding in his head what was and was not allowed in battle.

Now, with precedent set, there is instead some faith that the regulators will ensure that the playbook is fair.

As Stella added: “Our conversation and our internal reviews have always been very clear – ‘Lando, we like, we approve, we confirm the way you go racing. It is not for you to go there and find justice yourself.

“’You go racing in a fair, sporting way like you do, and then there needs to be a third party, stewarding, which will say whether some manoeuvres are correct or not. Don’t be desperate, you do not have to prove anything, you go racing fair and square.’

“I think it is good to race hard, but it cannot be resolved on track by the two drivers. It needs the third party, it needs the authority, so we are completely happy with the way Lando has gone racing before.

“And any time I have read these type of headlines [about the Norris/Verstappen fight], I always needed to have a conversation with Lando to reassure him: ‘Don’t worry, it will be alright’.”