Not since the highly contentious Abu Dhabi Grand Prix battle royal between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen brought the curtain down on the 2021 Formula One season has the sport had a proper rivalry.
Instead, drivers and teams have been left scratching their heads wondering how to stop Verstappen disappearing into the distance or, more pertinently, at least somehow reduce that gap.
A suitor has emerged to be the Dutchman’s long-term rival in recent weeks, though, making each weekend’s racing — this time the calendar turns to the British Grand Prix — far more salivating than it has been for some time.
Lando Norris will race at Silverstone in the belief that he can beat the championship leader. In five of his last seven races, the young Briton has finished in the top two, the anomalies being his fourth place at Monaco and being driven out of the race by his title rival last weekend in Austria.
The pair enjoy a good friendship off the track, and yet F1 has seen so many relationships crumble, notably more recently that of childhood friends and then Mercedes team-mates Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who still do not speak since their tense 2016 championship tussle.
For now, the Norris-Verstappen friendship remains intact after they met on Monday following the fall-out from Spielberg for clear-the-air talks to discuss what had happened on turn three of lap 64.
Both punctured, Verstappen limped to the pits, received a 10-second penalty for his part in it and still finished fifth, while Norris could not return to the race, costing him a possible win.
Arriving at Silverstone, Verstappen hardly produced a mea culpa when he answered about the criticism aimed at him: “I don’t give a s*** about that. I go home. I live my life. And the only thing that I care about is just my relationship to Lando.”
The more astute of you might be prone to then question why he decided to test that relationship in the manner in which he did, but he went on to say they agreed on virtually everything about how they would race going forward.
Being title rivals will surely prove a test of a tight friendship. Such is the nature of racing that incidents are bound to happen this season and next, for which they are predicted to remain the top two.
Norris was far from his placid self in Austria, ordering an explanation for Verstappen’s actions. Come Silverstone, he has allowed the dust to settle.
“Some of the things I said after the race was because I was frustrated,” he said yesterday. “There was a lot of adrenaline, lots of emotions, and some of the things I said I don’t necessarily believe in.
“He doesn’t need to apologise and I don’t expect an apology. It was good racing, at times close to the edge, but we have spoken about it and we are happy to go racing again.
“The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think it’s just racing. It was good racing, very close at times.”
Such a response is music to the ears of F1 owners Liberty Media and those behind the Netflix Drive to Survive not needing to manufacture story lines, plus the hundreds of thousands of fans expected through the turnstiles at Silverstone over these next three days.
As Verstappen put it: “We go at it flat out, that’s what we agreed. That’s what we like to do and that’s what’s good for F1 as well.
“When we spoke on Monday, we came to the conclusion that we actually really enjoyed our battle. We like to race hard and these things have to carry on, because that’s what we like to do and it’s great for F1.”
As for whether the long-term friendship remains intact, Verstappen said: “I think so.”
This weekend will be its latest test.
