Verstappen: 'I don't give a shit' about Austria crash criticism

Max Verstappen isn't paying attention to outside criticism for his role in last week's collision in Austria that took out Lando Norris.

"I don't give a shit about that," Verstappen told reporters Thursday, including Sam Cooper of PlanetF1. "I go home, I live my life."

But the reigning three-time world champion added that his focus following the crash was maintaining his "relationship with Lando."

Verstappen banged wheels with Norris on Lap 64 in Austria, costing himself a potential victory and forcing the McLaren driver to retire from the race due to damage. Norris said post-race that he'd lose respect for Verstappen if his rival didn't take accountability for the collision.

However, the two drivers spoke Monday and came to an understanding about the ordeal.

"I woke up already quite early because I wanted to talk to Lando, of course, but he already texted me in the morning on Monday," Verstappen told Sky Sports. "I respected that a lot. We are great friends. He's a very nice guy, honestly. Of course, I was also really upset and disappointed that we got together because naturally, you know, of course, on the track, you race each other hard, but as a friend as well, you're very disappointed that happened."

He continued: "But I think also quite quickly when we were talking, we had the same opinion of we have to race each other hard because that's what we like to do and what we've always done. Not only in Formula One, like even when we used to race together online and stuff like that. That's what we really enjoyed about each other, like battling hard, and that's what we'll continue to do."

Norris told the media Thursday that he didn't feel Verstappen owed him an apology, calling it "good racing" after reviewing the crash.