Lando Norris provides health update after ‘decent impact’ in Las Vegas crash

Lando Norris has said he was left “winded” after his crash in Las Vegas, but was “never bad” in his condition as he underwent hospital checks.

The McLaren driver was taken to hospital after spearing into a concrete wall when he lost control of his car over a large bump through Turn 11 last weekend.

He climbed out of his car unaided at the time, but concerns were raised for his wellbeing and over the bump in that corner itself, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella calling for it to be smoothed over in time for next year’s race.

Lando Norris not blaming Las Vegas circuit for crash last weekend

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Norris posted a picture on Instagram from hospital after being taken for precautionary checks following his significant impact last weekend, but is fit and ready to take part in the season finale in Abu Dhabi a few days later.

Naturally, the first topic of conversation when he sat down with reporters at Yas Marina was the state of his wellbeing after his hefty impact in Nevada last time out, but the McLaren driver was keen to play down the concerns surrounding him.

“Honestly, I was never bad, they just wanted to do a lot of check-ups and stuff – kind of the new norm nowadays, it seems,” Norris told media including PlanetF1.com in Abu Dhabi.

“But I was fine. Obviously I was winded, that’s probably what you heard on the radio and stuff when I had the impact and it just kind of caught me off guard a little bit, and it happened quite quickly.

“Still a decent impact, but I was fine. I never struggled with anything. I was more just frustrated that I was out of the race in Vegas so early on.”

When asked what it was that caused his accident in the first place, Norris put the obvious sign of the bump heading through Turn 11 front and centre.

However, where his team principal wants it to be ironed out next year, he does not quite believe the bump in itself was the full cause of his accident – and a “rare” set of circumstances came together for him to hit the wall.

PlanetF1.com recommends

Fastest F1 pit stops: McLaren break key barrier once again in Las Vegas Grand Prix

F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2023 grid?

“A combination of things, the obvious one being is there’s quite a big bump there,” Norris responded when asked what caused his crash.

“Then cool tyres, so therefore lower ride heights than what you’re normally running with. The first time following a lot of cars through all of this, there’s even less downforce than what you already have.

“Then a couple of other little things in the in the background just made this will be this bump, have a bigger effect than what it normally has – and I think I’ve somehow must have caught it at a worse angle than normal.

“I always knew there was a bump there, but just for some reason, the effects of it on this one lap seemed a lot bigger than what it had done previously. So just a little bit unlucky at the same time.

“For all of those things to happen again and to cause this is quite rare, probably if I did everything almost trying to drive everything the same now, it’s not a guarantee that it would happen again.

“So if I was 30 centimetres to the right or to the left, maybe it would be different, if there was one less car ahead of me, it would have been different, if I clicked the battery a little bit earlier, it would have been different.

“There are so many different circumstances, so I think the track is okay.

“It’s not the best track I’ve ever driven. If it was just higher grip, I think the tarmac made it a lot worse than what every driver would have wanted.

“It plays a big part in racing, but the racing was pretty decent, I think almost because it was so tricky and difficult to drive, so it’s kind of on the reverse end, you know?”

Read next: FIA reach verdict after Toto Wolff, Fred Vasseur summoned to stewards in Abu Dhabi