Online Reporter
LANDO NORRIS has somehow become the pantomime villain in F1 while he charges to the title.
The McLaren 25-year-old has now been booed at two Grands Prix this season after standing on the podium.
The first came in September in Monza where Ferrari’s boisterous Tifosi booed him as he came second.
Norris’ post-race interview was then interrupted after he won Sunday’s race in Mexico City, with more grumbling from fans.
The main reason for this appears to be the wild conspiracy theories about McLaren sabotaging Oscar Piastri in favour of Norris.
It is thought that the jeers in Monza were due to the team order chaos late on when Piastri was asked by McLaren to swap back places due to Norris’ slow 5.9 second pit stop.
It left Norris undercut by team-mate Piastri and seemed another bitter blow to the Brit’s title hopes a week after he retired in Zandvoort with an oil leak.
But the Aussie was then told to give the place BACK to Norris, which he did so reluctantly.
It is worth remembering that McLaren also stepped in last season, with Norris asked to let Piastri through to win the Hungarian Grand Prix following the pit stops.
When Norris was asked about the boos, he said: “I don’t know why, to be honest,
“And people can do what they want, they have the right to do it if they want to do it. So I think that’s sport sometimes.
“I don’t know why, I can’t stop laughing when I get booed. I think it makes it more entertaining for me. So yeah, they can keep doing it if they want.
“Of course, you don’t want it. I prefer if people cheered for me. But I don’t know— who knows. Like I said, I just concentrate on doing my thing.
“It was the same in Monza and a few other places. So yeah, I don’t know why, I just can’t stop laughing.”
After the race in Mexico, Norris was asked if he would give back the extra three world championship points he earned as a result of the position swap in Monza to help stop the booing.
He said: “If they want to think that they certainly have the right to, they can think whatever they want,
“I guess, from us as a team, of course, we try and do things fairly.
“That was the comments we made back then.
“The same as two years ago in Budapest, when I could have won the race and not let Oscar back through and let him win the race he deserved to win. It was no difference to that, really.
“And, to be honest, if you want to have the three points, they can. They have the right to think whatever they want.
“But yeah, like Oscar deserved to win in Budapest, I deserved to be ahead in Monza. Simple as that.”
Norris had an outside chance of fighting Max Verstappen for the title last season and fans were more than happy to cheer him on as the young buck taking on the four-time world champ.
The championship is now in his hands this year with him leading the table by one point over Piastri and now some supporters have turned against him. —Sun.
