Norris ‘ignored’ McLaren warning in Abu Dhabi with Vegas DSQ fresh in the memory
Lando Norris celebrates winning the F1 2025 world championship for McLaren.
Winning his debut World title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday evening, Lando Norris performed the traditional burnout, but it was done under a note of caution from McLaren as its Las Vegas double DSQ remained fresh in the memory.
“Take weight off the tyre,” was the message to Norris, according to Zak Brown, only for the Briton to “ignore” the team.
Lando Norris ‘ignored’ McLaren’s warning to ‘take no risk on anything technically’
Seemingly cruising towards the 1-2 in the Drivers’ Championship, having already wrapped up the teams’ trophy in Singapore with a record-equalling six races to spare, McLaren’s quest for the double was dealt a huge blow at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Norris and Oscar Piastri took the chequered flag in second and fourth places under the lights in Sin City only to be disqualified for excessive plank wear.
The stewards revealed Norris’ MCL39 had two measurements that were below the 9mm skid block limit as the front right skid block was 8.88m and his right rear was 8.93mm, while Piastri had three illegal measurements.
Norris lost 18 points and Piastri 12.
It meant Max Verstappen, who scored the maximum 25 for the win, closed to within 24 points of Norris and tied with Piastri on 366.
As the final two races of the season played out, McLaren hung onto the World title by two points with Norris’ P3 in Abu Dhabi enough to beat Verstappen, while Piastri dropped to third place, 11 points down on the Red Bull driver.
The Las Vegas DSQ still played on McLaren’s mind as Norris celebrated his title, Brown revealing the team wanted him to go easy on the car as he made his way back to parc ferme.
“We wanted to make sure we were totally fine on weight,” Brown told talkSPORT. “We were fine, but it was just like, take no risk on anything technically, and when you do burnouts, you take weight off the tyre.
“So it was nothing more than that, but he ignored us.
“There was nothing to worry about; we were just being very cautious, coming out of Vegas.
“Yeah, 100 per cent [knew Norris was going to do burnouts].
“As long as we don’t have any issues [he can do it again if he wins the title in 2026 as well], I think we would have been a little cautious.”
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But it wasn’t just the championship that Brown celebrated, it was the manner in which McLaren won it.
In a season in which momentum swung between Norris and Piastri, the team was adamant it would be fair to both drivers as long as they still had a shot at the title.
“Block out the noise,” Brown said. “Stay focused on the mission, stay focused, true to yourself and the team on what your racing principles are, because everyone had an opinion on what we should be doing.
“[Felt the noise] All throughout the season.
“The way we treated our drivers equally and gave them equal opportunity meant sometimes that they took points off of each other, which you could say compromises their individual championships.
“But when you have two number one drivers, you’ve got to give them equal opportunity.
“And if the risk, which the risk is 2007, we had Fernando [Alonso] and Lewis tied on points, and then Kimi Räikkönen won the championship, because Ferrari was focused on Kimi as a driver’s championship.
“When you have two number one drivers, you’ve got to treat them equally.”
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