Jon Noble: The strands that join Silverstone 2021 and Austria 2024's race lead crashes

When you dig into the contributing factors of how it came to this, the critical elements are clear for all to see. A sense of regret after the sprint about letting Max Verstappen get away for another Formula 1 win when the opportunity was there to beat him.

The knowledge that if a move to make amends in the main race is going to work, passing the Red Bull has to happen immediately and aggressively. And the surety that the Dutchman will defend his lead at all costs - even if it risks an accident - so you have to play by the same rules and not back down to get it done.

Combine these three elements together (which are in effect a real-life simulation of how things will play out if you don’t do what you have to do) then you have a perfect recipe for it all ending in tears at the second attempt. But what is perhaps most remarkable about the above perfect storm of circumstance is that we could be talking just as much about the 2021 British Grand Prix as we could last weekend’s Austrian GP.

In fact, it probably is not coincidence that in the moments after the sprint, as a forlorn Lando Norris rued the “amateur” way he had left the door open for a super-aggressive Verstappen to retake the lead, there was very much a sense he would not allow himself to get it wrong a second time. And this probably meant two outcomes: a brilliant win or it ends in drama.

It is this often-unacknowledged consequence of F1’s sprint race – that teams and drivers have a second chance to sort out what they didn’t get right before – that has served in the past to lift the intensity of how things play out on Sundays.

In Austria, Norris had come out of the sprint with two clear lessons that needed to apply to the main race. The first was that this was a weekend where a combination of the track layout, asphalt and weather meant that Red Bull appeared to have the edge over the long runs – as Verstappen proved himself able to edge clear over the pursuing McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Norris as the stint stretched on.

Norris was shown in the sprint race just how uncompromising he could expect Verstappen to be in battle

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

This meant that the characteristics we had seen at Imola and Barcelona, of Norris coming back at Verstappen in the closing stages, was not going to be a weapon in his armoury this time out.

So based on the pace of the Red Bull, and the distinct benefit that DRS offered in allowing a driver to latch on and make a move on the car ahead, there was no doubt that if Verstappen was to be beaten, then it wasn’t a case of playing the long game and waiting until the end. A move had to be done the moment the opportunity came up.

The other data point that Norris took into the Austria race from the sprint was that, when it comes to racing wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen, he knew that there was no scope for leaving an inch of room, or allowing a moment of hesitancy.

That these circumstances have played out twice suggests that what we saw at the Red Bull Ring is not going to be an isolated moment

The execution of his pass on Verstappen for the lead in the sprint had been clinically brilliant, and as they roared down the track to Turn 4, he had everything he needed to stay in front. He would have been well within his right to shut the door firmly on Verstappen behind him, squeeze out any racing room down the inside by holding the defensive line, and making it clear that if the world champion wanted to get back past, he was going to have to do it the hard way – around the outside.

Instead, Norris gave Verstappen the smallest sniff of a chance down the inside when he moved left to take the racing line. That invite was all Verstappen needed – being right on the limit as he locked his right front wheel and compromised both their runs through the corner.

Disappointed with himself, Norris learned two things here: that he needed to be more aggressive himself in fighting for what he thinks is his; and secondly that Verstappen will not give him one centimetre more than he has to – so will be on maximum attack if there is the sniff of a race lead up the grabs.

Throw together the performance lessons of the cars, and the understanding of the game his rival was happy to play, then it was pretty obvious that when Red Bull’s botched pitstop put Verstappen into Norris’s clutches – and more especially DRS range – it always had the chance of turning out the way it did.

Norris and Verstappen's contact in the GP had echoes of what happened at Silverstone in 2021, also a sprint weekend

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Rewind to the 2021 British Grand Prix and, while history has not exactly repeated itself, it has definitely rhymed. Saturday’s sprint at Silverstone had delivered Hamilton a clear message about the pace of the Red Bull – and that if Verstappen managed to lead into Becketts on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, then there would be little change of beating him.

It was crystal clear in his head that he could not afford to play the long game and hope that better tyre degradation on the Mercedes could allow him to come out on top. Instead, he knew he had to get on with things and wrestle the lead early on the opening lap before Red Bull’s tyres had hit their peak performance levels.

This was why he was so aggressive on those opening corners, and went for the inside at Copse – a move that ended in the high-speed crash for his rival who had showed himself unwilling to back down and stayed fully committed on the outside.

That these circumstances have played out twice – and you could argue three times with the Monza 2021 sprint circumstances thrown into the mix – suggests that what we saw at the Red Bull Ring is not going to be an isolated moment. With more sprints to come, and more second chances for the avenged to hit back, the factors we’ve seen play out are going to keep repeating.

But whether these close dices end up in the fantastic racing we want to see, or a collision that ruins everything, probably depends on the attitudes of those drivers at the centre of it. And as McLaren boss Andrea Stella said about F1 moving on from Austria, and not seeing a return to the controversies of 2021, the onus for him seemed very much on Verstappen.

“I think Lando said the right things in saying that it was a great battle, but there was no need to act so desperately,” he said. “There's no need to think that the world is going to finish if the overtaking manoeuvre by the car behind me is going to be completed.

“Max, you will have your own opportunity. It’s not going to finish the world now if he [the car behind] makes it, and deserves to make it. We would like to hope that that's the case in the future…”

Will there be future instances of contact between Norris and Verstappen after Austria lit the touch paper on their rivalry?

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images