Lando Norris has stated that his team, McLaren, found humor in the so-called tape incident in Austin. Rival team Red Bull was fined 50,000 euros – half of which was conditional – for attempting to remove a piece of tape that Norris could use as a reference point at the start of the race. According to the British driver, it didn’t bother him much, as he didn’t end up using the marking anyway.
Following the United States Grand Prix, Formula 1 was faced with what is now jokingly referred to as tape-gate. The Red Bull team received a hefty fine for trying to peel a piece of tape off the guardrail. Lando Norris was supposed to use this marking to properly position his car at the start. In the run-up to the Mexico Grand Prix, Norris stated that he mainly laughed about the incident – especially about the high fine for Red Bull.
The press in Mexico City asked the Brit about tape-gate. “They (Red Bull) did a good job,” Norris sarcastically laughed. “I didn’t care at all. In the end, I didn’t even use the tape – which made it even funnier. We had just stuck it on for safety. The fact that they get such a penalty for it is all the more amusing. They tried to remove the tape, but they didn’t even succeed,” Norris revealed with a broad grin. “We made it especially for this. These are just funny, small side issues that teams occupy themselves with. But in the end, we were the ones who laughed the hardest.”
