13 hours Ago By [email protected] (Daniel Moxon)
Lando Norris has the Formula 1 world as his feet right now - so why does he feel the need to still be complaining? At the moment all he seems to be doing is giving unnecessarily long answers to questions about rivals pointing out - correctly - that McLaren have an advantage over all their rivals right now. George Russell especially appears to have got under the skin of his fellow Brit by saying Norris' team has become the new Red Bull . It's clearly a fair comment to make - they've won two races out of two so far this year and no-one has been able to match their pace in either qualifying or race conditions so far.
Yet Norris feels the need to label such names "nonsense" and call out his rivals for "talking crap". Why? There's no need for him to react in any way to what those who aren't in a position to beat him on track are saying. Right now, thinking about anything other than team-mate Oscar Piastri is a distraction Norris could do without.
He may never get a better chance to become world champion than this year but the same is true for the Aussie. Piastri has shown he is a worthy contender for the crown and, if Norris continues to be distracted by such trivial comments, then he's not putting in the full attention he needs to give to seeing off his team-mate. Tasty from Tost What is it about Red Bull and ageing Austrians who don't mince their words? Octogenarian Helmut Marko has been a walking, talking PR disaster for years, but at least former Racing Bulls boss Franz Tost, 69, knew when it was time to retire in 2023.
But he popped back up this week to throw more egg onto the faces of Marko and Christian Horner with a punchy line about the big driver swap and their original decision to pick Liam Lawson over the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda . Tost knows both drivers well and quipped: "You could give Lawson 100 years, and he still wouldn't be as fast as Yuki." Formula 1 fans can watch every practice, qualifying and race live with Sky's new Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in a new deal that saves £192.
As well as Sky Sports access, this includes more than 100 TV channels and free subscriptions to Netflix and Discovery+. From the archive Kimi Raikkonen produced one of the all-time great wins 20 years ago by driving from 17th on the grid to win the 2005 Suzuka race, and the Iceman even produced a rare display of emotion by punching the air with both arms as he took the chequered flag. Fast fact Tsunoda now drives for one of the top teams for the first time in his F1 career and is bidding to become the first Japanese driver to stand on the podium since Kamui Kobayashi finished third at Suzuka in 2012.
Inside track Jack Doohan looks set to be the next victim of the ruthless driver merry-go-round, with sources suggesting Alpine could replace their rookie with Franco Colapinto before we even get to the European leg of the season, which starts with the Imola race in mid-May..
