How Abu Dhabi clashes show the F1 grid has learned how to stand up to Verstappen

For once in the ugly on-track clashes that somewhat marred the 2024 Formula 1 season in some quarters, while galvanising it in others, Max Verstappen had a point in raging at his penalty for whacking McLaren's Oscar Piastri at the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The clash should have gone down as a racing incident – each driver punished enough for their part in it with those wild spins to the middle and rear of the pack respectively.

As the uber-aggressive attacker – until he realised what was about to happen and tried to back out, while being pinched on the inside kerb – it goes down as a narrow-split, perhaps 60-40 blame game result for Verstappen. But that the McLaren was squeezing the racing line highlights how Piastri played a major role in what happened too.

But those dramatic spins, wrecked races and sassy team radio responses should’ve been a combined punishment enough. F1’s ‘let them race’ first corner rule surely should've applied. That it didn’t here, just as between Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in Las Vegas last year and (sort of) between the Dutchman and Lando Norris at Budapest in 2024, yet did at Austin this season, is another problem.

Fans and drivers detest when consistency is lacking in such matters. The differing circumstance here is that contact was made – the stewards’ deciding Verstappen was “wholly” to blame for it. Yet this too is baffling given how quickly the line closed down once he’d committed to it.

“The gap was closing and I wanted to try and get out of it, because naturally, I didn't want to crash with Oscar,” Verstappen said afterwards. “But, unfortunately, we still clipped each other.

“I already apologised to Oscar, it’s not what you want to happen, and especially not with him – he's a great guy. But it happened and it is a bit unfortunate.”

Will impending change to Driving Standards Guideline change how Verstappen approaches wheel-to-wheel battles?

Photo by: Andreas Beil

When it comes to consistency in F1 stewards’ rulings, in Abu Dhabi Autosport gleamed further information on the upcoming changes to ‘Driving Standards Guidelines’ document that were postponed to a 2025 introduction in Qatar the previous weekend.

Rather than clamping down solely on Verstappen’s tactic of turning defence-into-attack when running on the inside into a corner and under attack from the outside, the guidelines are now set for wider revisions encompassing the existing scenarios on racing they cover, after the lengthy discussions with the drivers. As a reminder, these are just overtaking on a corner's inside and outside and how those approaches apply to chicanes and S-bends.

Changes to cover drivers no longer having to give room from apex to exit when solely attacking on the inside were revealed by the drivers in Qatar. But Autosport understands the DSG wording will now also expand to cover the uber-aggressive defence Verstappen has perfected (by doing it at a lower speed) since racing Lewis Hamilton in Brazil in 2021.

Come 2025, it won’t just be how Verstappen drives that really matters. Because, as 2024 petered out, his top rivals were showing they’re starting to handle what’s often thrown their way

While it is understood that outlawing this specifically has not been agreed, it will be established that in such circumstances a driver must at least stay on the circuit (as Verstappen also didn’t at Austin this year).

It’s interesting to consider how the many high-profile clashes F1 witnessed this year within the title battle might have gone differently with those tweaks already in place. It’s unlikely Verstappen would change his approach overall – for he rarely does – and given he is a master of the wheel-to-wheel racing art, we can be fairly sure he would have made different requirements work to his advantage in any case.

But, come 2025, it won’t just be how Verstappen drives that really matters. Because, as the season in which he claimed his fourth crown petered out, his top rivals were showing they were starting to handle what is often thrown their way.

Norris went from shoved off and holding no case at Austin to getting far enough ahead on the same outside line in Mexico that Verstappen copped a penalty (with only the first of their two clashes in short succession there mattering given how the second was so egregiously Verstappen’s fault).

Norris learned from Austin experience when battling Verstappen in Mexico, and he's not the only driver who has stood up to the Dutchman

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Norris outlined his main takeaway from going toe-to-toe with Verstappen – and pleasingly as hard as he’d vowed to do if given the machinery to do so – in Abu Dhabi. “I obviously lost out on a few things [this year],” Norris explained in the post-race press conference.

Norris had delayed this for the defeated Ferrari drivers by being so classically effusive in discussing McLaren’s constructors’ success with TV crews beforehand. They’d already been kept waiting for Yas Marina's third-place finisher Leclerc needing to film a post-race scene for the forthcoming F1 film. So many narratives of the 2024 campaign combining just as the year ended…

“There were maybe three starts this year, which lost me one or two positions at times,” Norris added. “But they were positions quite often just to Max. Or it was Budapest and one to Oscar and little things like that. But none of them, when I look back on them, made me feel like, ‘well, I've not got what it takes’.

“Those moments only came when it was directly against Max. And its Max. Going up against Max in any state is always going to be tricky. And no one has a nice time racing Max. I think Mexico was a bit of a turning point when it was proved that not everything he does is perfect.”

But it must be remembered that Norris finally reducing the wiggle room in the then unclarified DSG wording was the key to the battle outcome changing and he wasn’t alone in altering his attitude towards Verstappen as the 2024 season ended.

George Russell – Brad Pitt and Leclerc’s co-star post-race at Yas Marina – had begun the weekend engaging the world champion in a brutal war of words following their Qatar quarrel. He went too far at times, but Russell’s suggestion “people have been bullied by Max for years now” implies he is not going to back down in any on-track action between the pair F1 now gets a whole winter to look forward to come 2025.

After Norris had declared “I don't” when asked if he believed in the value of momentum from season-ending wins such as he’d secured this time, Leclerc, sitting alongside and another who has shown Verstappen plenty of firmness in battle this year agreed. He added that was because, “there's been quite a lot of examples on our side where we finished a year strong and then the beginning of the year after we've been struggling”.

But with no upcoming rule changes and most teams set for evolution rather than revolution on car design with the 2026 regulations reset now so close, it’s tantalising to think there could be a four-way scrap for next year’s titles amongst the leading teams.

Russell didn't hold back when speaking to the media about Verstappen in Abu Dhabi

Photo by: Ronald Vording

And, for all its fine work, had small margins gone differently for it in Qatar, Red Bull might’ve ended 2024 without a dry weather win since Spain back in June. This highlights how Verstappen could again be beatable when the action resumes in Australia next March – a track far from a totally happy hunting ground for him either.

He, however, has long learned that becoming a champion is a 365-day pursuit – not just during the racing season. Like Nico Rosberg in 2015-16, Verstappen is always fuelled by point proving and the memory of previous successes or failures really does matter under pressure.

Here is where momentum becomes important for all drivers – as it can drive them through their off-season preparations handily, the winning feeling galvanising thoughts on just how tough it’s going to be to beat even a vulnerable Verstappen. They must steel themselves, for he already has.

Piastri’s assertion that “there was no overlap into the corner” highlights the sense he felt he had to make a point back to Verstappen

It is where racing markers meet memories and neither Verstappen nor Piastri will forget what happened in Abu Dhabi last weekend. The former was apparently so concerned he didn’t “want to have any weird feelings or whatever going into the break”. Hence the apology.

Piastri’s assertion that “there was no overlap into the corner” highlights the sense he felt he had to make a point back to Verstappen. That’s title contending already.

Piastri is already aware he must step up his qualifying performances in 2025 – the 24-6 (including sprint qualifyings) defeat to Norris he feels is down to lacking consistency in stringing laps together around track changes at the limit in such sessions.

But if he can fix that, the mettle he just showed will stand him in perfect stead for McLaren's attempt to double up in 2025, alongside the steely challenges surging from within Mercedes and Ferrari too.

Piastri was keen to lay down a marker to Verstappen in Abu Dhabi, which points to his mindset approaching 2025

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images