Lando Norris says he be “a lot more careful” on the podium in future after accidentally breaking the race winner’s trophy last weekend in Hungary.
The McLaren driver is known for celebrating by ‘spiking’ his champagne bottle in celebration on the podium. This involves slamming the bottle down on its base to eject a stream of liquid into the air.After spiking his bottle on the podium at the Hungaroring, where he finished in second place, Norris inadvertently knocked race winner Max Verstappen’s trophy off the top step of the podium, breaking the porcelain ornament into two pieces.
“First of all, I do want to apologise for it,” Norris said ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Although Norris made light of the incident on Sunday last week, he confirmed he “did apologise to Max” as well.
“I know I obviously made a couple of jokes about it – which maybe I shouldn’t – but I do feel bad. If he did it to my trophy I’d be annoyed!
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“So I do apologise for it and obviously the people who put the time and effort in and everything into making it. I really didn’t mean for it to happen. So I’ll make sure I’m a lot more careful next time when celebrating.”
“We get a new one anyway so it’s alright,” said the championship leader.
“I don’t know what they are actually doing with it. I think it’s back at the factory at the moment but it takes six months apparently to make a new one. So I guess for six months they can keep the broken one and then they get a new one.”
Asked if he would consider retiring his trademark champagne spike, Norris said there was “no reason why I should.”
“I’ll just take a little bit more care with obviously what I do,” he said. “But I’ll just move the trophies aside and then continue.”
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The Edge (@the-edge)
27th July 2023, 21:42
Lando did NOT knock the trophy over
The podium bounced from the force of a glass bottle (which did not break) hitting it, bouncing the trophy off
Podium makers fault… not Lando’s
This could just as easily happened had someone jumped up and down on the podium
Dex
28th July 2023, 5:45
Still it doesn’t happen to others. His mistake. No need to make it big, beep happens, but it is on him, period. It’s more about showing (or not) class later, since the act itself is incidental.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
28th July 2023, 11:00
Look, do we want drivers to be characterful, show emotion etc etc or do we want them to act like robots?
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th July 2023, 7:51
He was warned not to use the podium but the ground but seems he forgot that.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
28th July 2023, 0:13
It is not the podium maker’s fault. In the FIA rules concerning the bounciness of podiums it states clearly that a bounciness of no less than 10% must be guaranteed. But only if the bounciness is perpendicular to the angularity of the inverted podium height, which clearly was the case in Hungary.
So you see, it is quite clear that if anyone is to blame, it can only be gravity. I am quite sure the FIA neither warned the podium maker nor Norris, that gravity does exist at the top step of the podium. Norris, never having been on the top step of the podium himself, could not have known that such conditions were present there.
frood19 (@frood19)
28th July 2023, 6:17
The effect of gravity is also weaker on the top step, so I’m thinking the McLaren engineers really should have calibrated for that…….
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
28th July 2023, 7:44
Possibly they did, however may have substituted weight for mass in calculations trying to avoid a masi incident.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
28th July 2023, 8:22
@uzsjgb – absolute comment of the day !
Alesici
28th July 2023, 10:09
Excellent comment! :)
The FIA have now set up a working group to reposition the sun for each race so that it cancels out the Earth’s gravity. They have identified that they will have to simultaneously patch the technical regulations to allow rocket propulsion, as the resulting zero friction would mean that the current cars would be unable to get off the start line.
David
28th July 2023, 0:22
Lets be honest. This broken trophy is probably worth more at auction now because of this story that goes with it
RandomMallard
28th July 2023, 7:11
Isn’t it a telling sign of this season that I’ve seen far more about Lando’s podium shenanigans than the race in Hungary in the week afterwards?
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
28th July 2023, 8:36
My thoughts exactly. This is such a non-story, but we keep hearing about it, because the season is boring.
Tim (@tsgoodchild)
28th July 2023, 8:06
It was the most exciting thing that happened on race day. Move on, roll on Spa.
stjs16 (@stjs16)
28th July 2023, 9:17
I think it only fair that Lando gives Max his trophy and take the First place one ;-)
GechiChan (@gechichan)
28th July 2023, 11:40
Max gets a new one, the manufacturing company are much more famous now, all is good. Plus, it was all in good spirit, it’s not like Lando took a shot at it out of frustration… There’s just no need for all this fuss