Max Verstappen is adamant he doesn’t give a “s**t” about the criticism his racing has received since he clashed with Lando Norris in Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen collided with Norris at Turn 3 when the two were battling over the lead with seven laps to go at the Red Bull Ring, handing both drivers involved punctures.
The Dutchman was penalised and his uncompromising approach when racing wheel-to-wheel has attracted considerable attention in the period succeeding the event.
But speaking at Silverstone, Verstappen insisted he wasn’t bothered about the reaction and his sole concern was ensuring his friendship with Norris was unperturbed.
Asked whether he considered the criticism that he received over his conduct during last week’s race was undeserved, Verstappen replied: “I don’t give a s**t about that.
“I go home, I live my life. Like I said, the only thing that I cared about was my relationship to Lando.”
Verstappen’s touch with Norris has prompted expectations that he will be in line to receive a hostile response from the British fans at Silverstone across this weekend.
“Lando and I are good friends and we spoke about it, so for us everything is cleared and that’s the most important,” he repeated.
“As long as I’m OK with Lando that’s the only thing that I’m concerned about.”
Questioned on whether he was worried about being booed, Verstappen alluded to the 2021 race to state that he was used to dealing with such scenarios in his career.
“I’ve had that already before, you know?” he said regarding potential booing.
“I just focus on the performance. Everything is cleared, which for me is the most important, and we move on.”
Verstappen chastised his own Red Bull team over the sluggish 6.5-second pit stop in Austria that enabled Norris to be right on his tail prior to their contentious clash.
“Most of it fell out of our control with the bad pit stop,” he recalled. “But honestly you win and lose as a team.
“We have had so many good pit stops and now unfortunately at a very important time one was very bad, but it has also given us wins in the past.
“That’s how it goes. We analyse everything, what went wrong and we’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, Verstappen expects another tight battle with McLaren this weekend at the venue where the Woking-based squad returned to the podium 12 months ago.
“I still expect it to be very close. We had a very good qualifying in Austria and in general a very positive weekend apart from the race result.
“But I still think McLaren – last year here they were flying, so they will be quick again.”
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