Lando Norris has broken his silence on the Red Bull grid tape removal saga at the United States Grand Prix last week.

The McLaren driver revealed he was thoroughly entertained when Red Bull got slapped with a £43,500 fine for trying to remove positioning tape from the pit wall – tape he wasn’t even using.

“Good job by them because they can [do it]. But, it didn’t matter,” Norris joked ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend.

The incident happened after cars left for the formation lap at Circuit of the Americas, when a Red Bull team member entered the grid area near Norris’s second position slot.

The stewards fined Red Bull £43,500 after they’d tried to pull off a large piece of tape that McLaren had stuck on the pit wall to help their driver line up properly.

The FIA ruled that the team member should have known better, even though Red Bull claimed he hadn’t noticed marshals trying to stop him.

Lando Norris has broken his silence on the Red Bull grid tape removal saga at the United States Grand Prix last week

 | REUTERS

It turns out the whole exercise was pointless anyway – Norris had already found his spot without needing the tape at all.

“I didn’t use the tape. So it was extra amusing because I didn’t need it. We just put it there in case, so it made it extra funny because they got a penalty for it, and I didn’t even need it,” Norris added.

This wasn’t Red Bull’s first go at this particular trick. Norris disclosed they’d already attempted to remove his positioning aids at Monza back in September, along with several other races.

ando Norris admitted that he ‘didn’t even use’ the tape that was removed

 | 

SKY SPORTS

“They also tried to remove it and failed because we made it special, so they couldn’t take it off either. So it was just amusing.

“Little side quests, I guess, for the teams to entertain themselves. But we were the ones laughing about it,” he continued.

“I use it in case I was to the right or something. It’s just a backup.

“I’ve used it for a little while, and they tried to remove it already, and they tried to remove it in Monza and a couple of other places. I’m using it to try and see them take it off!

“Sometimes I will never use it at all because it’s almost too far away. Sometimes I do.”

The fine only occurred after it was discovered one of their staff had entered a restricted area at Gate 1, right by where Norris would start the race, and not for removing the tape.

Max Verstappen won the United States Grand Prix last week, closing the gap to McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the top of the Drovers’ Championship

 | 

REUTERS

Verstappen, who dominated the weekend with wins in both the Sprint and main race, called the whole saga “a little silly thing that has been going on for a while.”

“It’s not something that I actually pay a lot of attention to as well because I’m focused on my own parking in the box,” he admitted.

“I guess in Austin, it took a bit longer for whatever reason that… the gate closed, if he [the team member] was instructed, or not, in the right way to stay out of it, I think it’s quite clear how the stewards explained it, so I think that is quite understandable.

Max Verstappen admitted it was ‘a little silly thing that has been going on for a while’

 | PA

“Then you get fined for that. It doesn’t even have anything to do with the tape. You can’t hold up the procedure of closing the gate.”

Up next for the pair is the Mexico Grand Prix. With Verstappen’s victory last weekend, he now finds himself a mere 40 points shy of Oscar Piastri at the summit of the Drivers’ Championship.

As for Norris, his second-place finish surpassed that of his Australian team-mate, who finished in fifth, leaving just a 12-point margin.

The Mexico Grand Prix starts at 8pm on Sunday.