Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are close friends.

In real life, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are close friends. The two got into a heated altercation on the racecourse during the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. It was immediately discussed if their off-track friendship would suffer as a result of their on-track disputes. In the Track Limits podcast, F2 driver Clement Novalak discussed this.

“In my opinion, Verstappen and Norris—ed.—are two very different people, so it’s fascinating how they are friends right now and how that could change if it turns into a full championship fight,” the 23-year-old French-Swiss driver said on the podcast. In the World Cup rankings, Verstappen is first. The Englishman is on P2, while Norris is 78 points ahead of the Dutchman.

We witnessed the transformation of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, two very close friends, who were on the grid about ten years ago. Thus, we’ll see,” Novalak said. “It would be great to see if it develops into rivalry because I enjoy that. You don’t want it, though, because they are obviously close friends.”

The drivers’ championship was contested by Rosberg and Hamilton from 2014 to 2016. Mercedes’s vehicle proved to be too formidable for the opposition, leading to intense competition to score the maximum points. Verstappen won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, for instance, when Rosberg and Hamilton crashed and both fell out.