Lando Norris accused Max Verstappen of “taking the p***” before the Las Vegas Grand Prix even began. The championship leader took umbrage with how his Red Bull rival was driving during the formation lap.
Audio of the McLaren driver’s team radio reveals what was going through his mind as all cars approached the grid. Norris said: “He’s taking the p*** with how big a gap he’s leaving. It’s way over the allowance.”
The team replied: “We see that, Lando.” Norris continued: “Come on! He’s just taking the p*** here. You can’t do this. It’s 10 car lengths, no?” McLaren repeated in response: “We see that Lando.”
The regulations do not specify the number of car lengths required on the lap. Instead, they vaguely state that “the formation must be kept as tight as possible.” Safety car conditions are when drivers can be “no more than 10 car lengths apart.”
Norris notably did two fewer burnouts than the five Verstappen performed at the end of the formation lap. Drivers received instructions to spin their wheels extra times due to the cold night-time temperatures in Las Vegas.
The race then began with Verstappen getting a better start than Norris. He overtook his championship rival when the Briton braked too deep before the first corner.
Norris said afterwards: “I messed up turn one – it was pretty poor from me. I braked too late. So yeah, it was all on me; pretty poor from myself.”
McLaren team principal, Andre Stella, has intimated that Norris was worked up by what Verstappen did. He said: “Instinctively, actually, I thought at the pit wall to tell Will to say like; ‘Tell him to stay calm’, but we don’t know whether that was an influence or not.”
