‘Idiot’ Lando Norris lifts lid on heated exchange with McLaren engineer
Lando Norris admits he made himself look like an “idiot” with his sweary radio outburst at the Dutch GP, though says his team know his words did not carry ill-intent.
The flashpoint in question occurred during the opening laps of the race at Zandvoort, as the rain got heavier and teams were left with a decision to make on whether to stick with the slick tyres or pit for intermediates.
Norris took matters into his own hands by pitting, against the instruction of his race engineer to stay out, for that verdict receiving a Norris response of: “What the f***, are you stupid?”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Lando Norris discusses that awkward exchange
Norris certainly was one of those drivers to lose out in a major way thanks to that early weather chaos, ultimately finishing P7 from his P2 grid slot, though after going back and discussing those radio comments with the team, he accepts he had not covered himself with much glory.
“We just spoke about it a bit now,” he told media including PlanetF1.com.
“When you look at it after you always think ‘I make myself look like an idiot’ and I get that.
“But the people I speak to know that I would never mean something like that, of course.
“We made some mistakes with our calls and the strategy. A bit of it is just emotions at the time.
“I always sound like I’m crying or moaning on the radio, I don’t know why. I hate it!
“我觉得我真的很放松和冷冻car but then I’m always the opposite when I listen to myself after…
“People always judge things from the outside and like to make comments, but the team knows how I work and how I say things.
“As long as they know that and I know how they do things, how they speak to me and how we interpret things, then that’s all that’s needed from my side.
“From what people see on the outside…I care but in a way I don’t care, because I’m doing my job and I just do that the best I can.”
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Norris did point out that he felt the information being given to him was not good enough, hence the frustration, but says that fiery chain of events will not be repeated.
“There are always discussions but a couple of times the information was not to the level it should have been and then it gets a bit frustrating at times,” he said.
“It’s stuff we reviewed and definitely won’t happen again.”
诺里斯希望回到th作出补偿e podium conversation at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, where the weather is looking more stable as dry conditions are set to grace Monza.
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