Lando Norris’s title hopes took a blow at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and his radio messages to the McLaren pit wall before the lights went out show just how much pressure he felt that he was under.
The double disqualification for McLaren saw Lando Norris’ lead over Formula 1 rival Max Verstappen take a hit.
The Dutchman is now just 24 points behind in the standings, and with two rounds remaining, it’s still all to play for.
Starting from pole position, Norris had a clean run into turn one, but the British driver overshot his entry into the corner and allowed Verstappen to take the lead of the race.
The four-time world champion would keep his position at the front of the pack for the entirety of the race, claiming maximum points as he took the chequered flag.
Max Verstappen got into Lando Norris’ head during the formation lap
Norris’ overexcitement may have been seen as a mistake from the 26-year-old, but when taking into account his radio messages to the McLaren pitwall during the formation lap, it seems to have been a masterstroke in mind games by Verstappen.
The McLaren driver was furious on his way to the grid, as his title rival seemingly took his time in lining up alongside him.
Norris was quick to make his race engineer, William Joseph, aware of his frustrations, radioing, “He’s taking the p— with how big a gap he’s leaving! It’s way over the allowed allowance.”
Joseph confirmed that they were aware of the issue, before the championship-leader added, “Come on! He’s just taking the p— here. You can’t do this! It’s two car lengths, no?”
There is no doubt that the effect of Verstappen’s nonchalant approach to his grid slot had detrimental consequences to Norris’ start.
Angling himself towards the RB21 next to him, Norris attempted to block any sort of advance as the lights dropped. In trying that, he completely missed his braking point into turn one and found himself in third place once the order was worked out in front of him.
McLaren embarrassed themselves with one radio message while Lando Norris was trying to catch Max Verstappen
That wasn’t the only interesting radio communications between Norris and his race engineer, however.
Later on in the race, after the McLaren star had dispatched of Russell and there was just open space between himself and the race leader, Verstappen, his race engineer instructed him that he had enough pace to potentially catch up to the RB21 ahead of him and take the race win for himself.
Upon the reception of the message, Norris attempted to lay down the gauntlet, but Verstappen had also been notified of the message and utilised the extra pace that he still had in his pocket.
Speaking on an episode of De Telegraaf’s F1 podcast, journalist Erik van Haren and former F1 driver Christijan Albers discussed the move by both parties, with the latter issuing a verdict that rendered the McLaren pitwall an ’embarrassment’.
“Norris overtook Russell on the hard tyre in that second stint and had good pace,” started van Haren. “And then he heard from his race engineer that now we are going to catch Verstappen.
“Verstappen’s engineer, Lambiase, was smart enough to convey that to Verstappen. And immediately, he increased his lead. And he said afterwards that yes, I couldn’t really get more motivation than that.
“That’s quite funny. And actually also very stupid, because you know with Verstappen, that actually gives him extra fire.”
Albers added, “I thought to myself, don’t jinx it. What can you achieve with this? Look, you can say, listen, on the next one, your distance is this, you’ve got the rhythm, you can catch up.
“But he actually said that it was a piece of cake, that it was all sorted out. And then I also thought, oh, what a risky inquiry, he’s definitely going to counter.
“Well, that happened too. And then it really becomes an embarrassment. So no, that was not good, but I think they have also learned from that.”
- READ MORE: Max Verstappen might now have a crucial advantage over Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Qatar
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