Lando Norris thanked the medical team at the Las Vegas Grand Prix following his huge crash on the second lap of the race.
The McLaren driver was running in 13th place when his car snapped out of control in turn 11. Norris struck a barrier on the outside, then slid down to turn 12 where he suffered a second impact.He told his team on the radio he was “okay” after the impact. He was initially taken to the circuit’s medical centre and then had further precautionary checks at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, before being discharged. His team said he was in “good condition” afterwards.
Norris said there was little he could do to avoid the crash once his car snapped out of control. “I just bottomed out on the [start], lost the rear and hit the wall,” he explained.
“Big thanks go to the medical staff for checking me over, and to the team for the work they’ll now put in on the car,” he added.
Several of Norris’ rivals were warned his car had bottomed out prior to his crash. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said a bump in the track contributed to him losing control.
“There’s a bump in that place and you can see all cars sparkle when they go through this bump,” he said. “I think the combination of the bump and the cold tyres might have surprised him. But otherwise, we don’t see any any issue with the car, or of a different nature.”
“Already during the weekend we saw cases in which there was oversteer in that place. So independently of the timetable, we would strongly recommend that this bump is smoothed out.”
“In fairness, it’s the same for everyone,” he added. “So it just depends on your speed and the condition of your tyres, potentially just how your car is positioned there, how close you are to the car ahead. So there’s multiple factors.
“Maybe Lando made a kind of assumption that there was enough grip. But it’s a very tricky place. I’m sure all drivers will comment that’s something that needs to be fixed.”
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2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix
- Tost blames track inspection oversight for Sainz’s damage in Las Vegas
- Hard to repeat “rare” combination of factors behind Vegas shunt – Norris
- Las Vegas Grand Prix “got a lot more hate than it deserved” – Sargeant
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- Piastri is first rookie to take two fastest laps in a season since Hamilton
A M (@amam)
19th November 2023, 12:25
The main thing is that he is OK.
Asd
19th November 2023, 12:34
The crash looked fantastic with all the sparks flying. I had hoped there would be more like it.
lynn-m
19th November 2023, 13:42
And this highlights everything thats wrong with many of the ‘fans’ that Liberty are bringing in.
They don’t care about the pure racing, The technical or engineering excellence or the skill of the teams & drivers.
They just want to see crashes & chaos.
As Max said yesterday there’s no passion for the sport or anything from many of these people. There here to see chaos & watch the new cool thing before moving onto the next thing.
Maybe i’ll be proven wrong but in a few years when those fans have left I expect F1 & Liberty to be desperately trying to mend fences with the more knowledgable, dedicated & passionate fans they are currently doing there best to run off. But in such situations it’s usually a lot harder to win people back.
S
19th November 2023, 14:24
Oh, come on. Relax. Norris is fine – nobody was hurt. It looked spectacular and created many interesting consequences for the race as a whole.
No, Liberty did not ‘bring me in’ either, before you mention it – I predate Liberty’s ownership by several decades.
Don’t hold your breath. Liberty will sell F1’s commercial rights on to an even worse mega-marketing entity long before they resort to grovelling to anyone – least of those who keep watching their product regardless of what it is or how it is presented.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
20th November 2023, 3:09
Some crashes are are undoubtedly spectacular, and though I don’t wish for them per se (the more drivers that remain on the circuit to race the better), and absolutely do not wish to see any injury to the drivers, it is a lot more exciting to seeing a retirement through ripping off your suspension than there is when your gearbox hydraulics fail in neutral.
In this case though, I do realise that wishing for more crashes ‘like it” does seem to suggest a desire to subject the drivers to the significant harmful forces that Lando experienced.
I choose to believe the OP meant he wanted to see a few more sparks flying though, and perhaps did not appreciate the full extent of the impact given that Lando reported he was OK.
Dave The Drummer (@davethedrummer)
20th November 2023, 15:03
Seconded.
Dave The Drummer (@davethedrummer)
20th November 2023, 15:05
Man this thing does replies awfully badly.
I was supporting lynn-m’s comment.
Mazro
19th November 2023, 14:26
If you hope to see crashes then watch destruction derby. F1 is about racing.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
19th November 2023, 17:40
Asd, I hope you grow up one day to understand just how ignorant what you wrote actually is.
SteveP
19th November 2023, 13:02
??
High impact incidents are never good.
This is not a video game where the resets/respawns and is immediately back in action.
SteveP
19th November 2023, 13:03
* driver resets…
S
19th November 2023, 14:27
But he has reset and will be back in action at the next available opportunity.
And as for the bump in question – please leave it there. This track, just like most others on F1’s calendar, needs as much character as possible. No more ironing the race circuits – perfection is boring.
faulty (@faulty)
20th November 2023, 15:34
Perfection is why I watch F1.
Sure, Monaco might have 6 on-track passes in total, but the level of dominance and control over their machinery that some of these drivers achieve, particularly those at the front, is rarely seen in other forms of motorsports.
F1 has always been a bit boring, it’s always one team having the upper hand over the rest, because, well, they perfected the formula before anyone else.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th November 2023, 14:18
Just remove the future races and leave the bump in peace.
Kringle
19th November 2023, 15:07
Echos of 94 for me, did not enjoy seeing that.
Dantera87
20th November 2023, 18:59
LOL get a load of this guy, trying to look like he cares by mentioning a completely unrelated tragedy that occured a lifetime ago.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th November 2023, 17:55
Removing that bump might be easier said than done as that particular section is a public road, meaning a new one could always arise over time.
Bart
19th November 2023, 22:28
They have blocked off sections of Las Vegas for months for this race, there could have been a moment somewhere to properly inspect the track – bumps, drain covers…
In Monaco drivers have taken a different line to avoid one typically nasty bump for decades. It has only recently been fixed.
Not to suggest that Monaco has anything in common with Las Vegas… One big difference is that the FIA and FOM are organizing the venue themselves in Vegas, and did so poorly.
Mark (@mrcento)
19th November 2023, 18:15
It was a very strange incident. No other driver had an issue that bump all weekend (albeit Lando crashing probably made them aware of the risk, it shouldn’t be there in the middle of a corner of that speed). And it was such a high speed one, the downforce means it wasn’t just pure lack of grip in the early stages of the race, car visibly jumped as it bottomed out and round she went.
I suspect McLaren just got their sums a bit wrong and with the low grip surface, were running the back of the car very soft to try and get as much mechanical grip out of the car (that was struggling more than most with the lack of grip) as they could, and a combination of other things, being on high fuel, under cornering load, car squatting with downforce load, maybe even the bump worsening a touch over the weekend the more the circuit was used, created a perfect storm on that particular lap.
Glad he’s ok, impact itself was deceptively huge, horrible angle as well to initially go into the barriers at that speed, could have been so many things went wrong there from concussion to ribs, to wrists, to legs bouncing around and hitting off the tub. All that matters is he walked away and checked out fine.