Lando Norris found himself at the center of a light-hearted online moment as fans observed a tweak to his social media bio.
Despite an encouraging 2023 F1 season which saw them secure nine podiums and finish fourth in the standings, McLaren’s start to 2024 has been less than ideal. Ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix later this week, the team’s pre-season testing in Bahrain revealed technical challenges.
Among the ten teams, McLaren encountered difficulties, completing the second least number of laps due to persistent technical glitches, notably a fuel system issue with the MCL38 on the second day of testing. Despite a promising start with Lando Norris posting competitive times, the team faced setbacks, with Norris unable to maintain his position on the timing sheets by the end of the testing period.
Amidst the pre-season testing, Norris found himself involved in an intriguing situation when fans online pointed out a change in the Brit’s X (formerly Twitter) handle bio. The bio, which earlier used to read “Race fast cars in Formula 1 with McLaren,” underwent a curious edit during the testing phase. It was noticed that Norris had temporarily omitted the word “fast” from his X handle, as it read:
“Race cars in Formula 1 with McLaren.”
As the situation came to light, it was none other than Lando Norris himself who responded online, as he replied to screenshots of his bio.
“lol youre joking,” he wrote.
Funnily enough, the McLaren driver swiftly reverted his bio to its original form, albeit with a humorous twist. His X bio, at the time of writing, reads:
“Race super fast cars in Formula 1 with McLaren.”
Lando Norris reacts to dismal pre-season testing performance from McLaren
Following the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Norris addressed the setbacks encountered during pre-season testing. However, the 24-year-old maintained a positive outlook, emphasizing the learning opportunities gained despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. He said (via Sky Sports F1):
“(It’s) not the end of the world definitely, but just of course you always want a perfect day and we didn’t get any long running high fuel stuff last night and we moved into this morning and we still didn’t get it this morning.”So not exactly what I wanted but there’s still plenty of things learned and a lot of stuff that I wanted to get done, done. So I was happy for the most part, but a couple of little things that I wish I could have done more.”
Lando Norris will compete in F1’s 2024 season opener, the Bahrain Grand Prix, later this week on March 2.