Lando Norris has mocked Red Bull after the Milton Keynes-based team were fined at the United States Grand Prix. Red Bull were slapped with a financial penalty after a team member attempted to remove grid tape, which had been placed on the pit wall to aid Norris.
McLaren attempt to help Norris by sticking a piece of tape to the wall to give him with a reference point when he pulls into his grid-slots at races. Ahead of the Grand Prix in Austin a member of the Red Bull team went back onto the track after the formation lap had begun and tried to scrape off the tape. The energy drink giants were ultimately slapped with a £43,000 fine, with half of it suspended for the rest of the season.
Norris was asked for his take on the incident ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. And the 25-year-old appeared to take delight at Red Bull’s misdemeanour as he joked: “Good job by them.”
The Briton added: “But it didn’t matter, I didn’t use the tape so it was extra amusing because I didn’t need it – we just put it there in case.
“So it made it extra funny because they got a penalty for it and I didn’t even need it. They also tried to remove it and failed because we made it special so they couldn’t take it off even.
“So it was just amusing, little side quests I guess for the teams to entertain themselves. But yeah, we were the ones laughing about it.”
Meanwhile, four-time reigning world champion Mac Verstappen offered his verdict on the incident as he said: “Well, you see there’s a yellow line, right? In the grid box, you look at that one. So you just park your car.
“If he (the staff member) was instructed or not in the right way to stay out of it, I think it’s quite clear how they explained it also to the stewards.
“So I think that it’s quite understandable that you get fined for that. And it doesn’t even have anything to do with the tape. You can’t hold up the procedure of closing the gate.”
And Mercedes star George Russell added: “I don’t know what the real truth is behind that story.
“I’m OCD and if I saw a piece of duct tape on the side of a nicely spray-painted wall, I would probably take it off as well.
“Maybe the mechanic is being totally innocent, I don’t know. Maybe not, but I think they’re experienced enough, they don’t need gamesmanship to come out on top or to get the upper hand. Maybe I’m being too naive.”