After his contact with Max Verstappen at the Mexican Grand Prix last weekend, Lando Norris made statements about the referees’ decisions and the events on the track.
Norris, who is in a tight competition for the championship this season, emphasized that he always aims to have a clean and fair race despite Verstappen’s aggressive driving style.
Lando Norris said: “I think the referees did a good job. The job they did was very difficult but they still did well.”
“And 99 percent of the people who watched and understood Formula 1 agreed.”
“I hope for a cleaner fight, but that’s not up to me. I don’t make the rules, I don’t decide the penalties; I just drive. The referees do the rest and I think they did a good job.”
“One of the things I’ve done well throughout my career has always been to stay out of trouble and keep the car intact.”
“All those little things add up throughout the season, especially in a budget-capped season.”
“I always wanted to race clean and fair.”
“Sometimes I was too polite, but generally I made good decisions. Sometimes I paid the price for not being aggressive, but it’s still my choice.”
“I know how to keep the car intact and I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
“It may not show on TV, but sometimes there are moments when you have to avoid a collision. I’m coming into this weekend hoping for a clean and fair race.”
Asked whether he had spoken to Verstappen this week, Norris replied: “No, we haven’t. I don’t think we need to. I have nothing to say. I respect Max very much, everything except what he did last weekend.”
“I’m not his mentor or anything. Max knows what he has to do. Deep down he knows he’s doing wrong. He’s the one who needs to change, not me.”
Referring to the struggle in the teams’ championship, Norris added: “Our struggle with Ferrari started to become clear 10 races ago.”
“McLaren and Ferrari had much more momentum than Red Bull, so Ferrari became our biggest rival.”
“Red Bull can take bigger risks, but we do our job properly, we stay away from problems.”
