Norris: Dutch GP radio outburst 'made me look like an idiot'

Lando Norris has admitted that in hindsight, his heat-of-the-moment radio outburst in last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix made him "look like an idiot".

Norris vented his frustration with his McLaren race engineer at the start of the race when the latter urged the Briton to stay out when a downpour hit the track at the end of the opening lap.

That led the bulk of the field to immediately switch to intermediates, but McLaren's drivers were ordered to stay out and brave the elements.

Although Oscar Piastri executed the directive, Norris would have none of it.

"What the f***, are you stupid?" he told his race engineer, as he lashed out over the radio before overruling the latter's call and executing a belated stop on lap 3.

The move was done in vain however as the McLaren driver was already at that point out of contention for a spot on the podium.

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Looking back on the moment, Norris said that he had just addressed the matter with his team and that his impulsive reaction had conveyed the wrong impression.

"We just spoke about it a bit now," he said. "When you look at it after you always think 'I make myself look like an idiot' and I get that.

"But the people I speak to know that I would never mean something like that, of course.

"We made some mistakes with our calls and the strategy. A bit of it is just emotions at the time. I always sound like I'm crying or moaning on the radio, I don't know why. I hate it!

"I feel like I'm really relaxed and chilled in the car but then I'm always the opposite when I listen to myself after...

"There are always discussions but a couple of times the information was not to the level it should have been and then it gets a bit frustrating at times. It's stuff we reviewed and definitely won't happen again."

Norris underscored the strong rapport that he enjoys with his McLaren crews, many of whom have worked with him since his maiden season in F1 with the Woking-based outfit in 2019.

Their familiarity with one another runs deep, allowing them to remain unfazed by impulsive remarks, even when subjected to criticism on social media by external observers.

"People always judge things from the outside and like to make comments, but the team knows how I work and how I say things," he added.

"As long as they know that and I know how they do things, how they speak to me and how we interpret things, then that's all that's needed from my side.

"From what people see on the outside...I care but in a way I don't care, because I'm doing my job and I just do that the best I can."

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