Just three days before the lights went out at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix and 20 Formula 1 cars invaded the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Lando Norris admitted it was a matter of when, not if, the two McLarens came together on track. By Sunday, it was obvious the British driver trailing his teammate in second for the championship trophy had spoken those words into existence.
With four laps to go, two streaks of papaya orange collided in an overdue clash between one team’s two star drivers. As Norris barreled down the pit straight, attempting to squeeze into the narrow gap between the wall and teammate Oscar Piastri, an ill-judged lunge sent the No. 4 car into the rear of the car in front. Fighting for fourth place, Piastri came out on top while Norris’ somewhat desperate move sent him back to the garage a handful of laps shy of the checkered flag.
Sunday’s race marked a turning point in the 2025 Formula 1 title fight. While attention remains locked on the two McLarens up front, Red Bull’s star driver looms as both a performance and personality benchmark for the rest of the grid.
Not only did Norris’ blunder carve out an advantage for Max Verstappen in the championship points as the four-time champ trails in the standings and finished second, but it also solidified the difference between the two drivers—both in performance and character.
Verstappen had a much-needed clean and quiet Canadian GP after ramming into George Russell’s Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix over the first weekend in June. In Barcelona, the Dutch driver reminded the racing world exactly who he was: “The Inevitable,” “Mad Max,” the kind of driver who Lewis Hamilton said in 2022, “is kind of do-or-die. It’s like you’re either crashing or you’re not going by.” Sky Sports claimed that his uncompromising driving style dirtied the shine of his brightest moments. ESPN argued his legacy would be tainted by his temper. F1 commentators called for his disqualification.
A 10-second time penalty for his Spanish saga put Verstappen in danger of a race ban going into Montreal. The Red Bull driver said on Thursday that the questions surrounding his proximity to a ban were “pissing” him off and that he would not race differently come Sunday in Canada. Originally dodging questions about the ethics and intent of his move against Russell in Spain, Verstappen later apologized via social media, saying that the collision was “not right.”
Sunday’s race was a recipe for a fracture between teammates as the team struggles to juggle two No. 1 drivers and as the aftertaste of last season’s recurrent team orders, known as papaya rules, still lingers. But Norris’ apology and ownership of his mistake, met with a DNF and a five-second penalty, prevented the possibility of a rift.
“No one to blame but myself, so I apologize to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something a bit silly,” the 25-year-old said post-race. “I let them down like this and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, I have a lot of regret.”
He went on to add that he should never have made the risky move and that he thought it was important to own up to his mistake.
Verstappen and Norris have been compared ever since the two clashed last year while fighting for the championship lead. Verstappen’s personality has previously been peeled back like an onion and labeled as a “foil,” one who says more about the other characters on the grid than his own traits. McLaren’s best marketing tactic might just be that Norris, as mistake-prone as he may be, is not Verstappen. In a battle of big egos and even bigger bottom lines, Norris has molded a specific, and at times unexpected, image of what a racing driver should be. Unlike Verstappen’s occasionally ethics-bending wheel-to-wheel reputation, Norris has insisted that he wants to win an F1 title “by being a nice guy.” The knee-jerk reaction to take accountability for his errors solidified that image, even if his nice-guy style of racing has cost him in the past.
As F1 speeds toward a future dedicated to entertainment, drivers have an assigned cast of characters. Just weeks before the sport blurs fact with fiction with the F1 movie launch, the Canadian GP read like a screenplay. Fresh-faced rookie Kimi Antonelli played the part of the underdog, becoming the third youngest podium-sitter with a third-place finish, while his teammate, Russell, secured his first win in 2025 amid slow performance gains at Mercedes. Norris, despite the two McLarens coming together in a cinematic fashion, fed into his boy-next-door persona with an immediate apology and his bespoke brand of self-deprecation.
And every good story needs a villain. Even with a seamless race, Verstappen’s lingering lapse in judgment made him a good anti-hero as spectators tuned in with bated breath in anticipation of a race ban-inducing penalty. Red Bull’s protest against Russell’s win, citing “erratic driving” behind the safety car, provided more drama even after the credits rolled.
Both Verstappen and Norris are currently divisive figures in the sport: periodically sprinkling the black tarmac with carbon fiber pieces, redrawing the contours around F1’s ever-changing rulebook, and pitting fans of the same team against each other. But it sure does make good TV.
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Olivia Hicks is a Brooklyn-based sports and environmental journalist specializing in the business, politics and culture behind Formula 1 for NPR and Motorsport.com. Over a race weekend, you can find her reporting live for The Independent. She is The Drive’s F1 correspondent for the 2025 season.
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