Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has joked that McLaren should pay for Max Verstappen’s Hungarian Grand Prix trophy to be fixed, after it was destroyed by Lando Norris.
Verstappen won last Sunday at the Hungaroring, with Norris having finished second.
The duo locked-out the top two places for the second race in a row; however, it was the first time in which Verstappen’s trophy was broken by the McLaren driver.
As Norris attempted his trademark champagne celebration, he knocked Verstappen’s trophy onto the floor, where it broke into several pieces.
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The two drivers saw the funny side of the incident, despite the fact the trophy took six months to build.
Horner, too, joined in with the jokes, and admitted that McLaren should pay the repair bill.
“I think it was firmly Lando’s fault that knocked it over apparently,” Horner told the F1 Nation podcast.
“I’ve just heard it’s about 60,000 euros worth of damage that he’s done. And six months [to make] – so obviously I said, ‘send them the bill.’ It’s only fair – he knocked it over.”
Norris and Verstappen continued to joke about the broken in the media pen after the race, where the McLaren driver refused to be blamed.
“Yeah, just hold it [Max]. It fell over I guess. Not my problem – it’s his,” Norris said, as reported by the Express.
Verstappen quickly threw the blame back onto Norris though, saying: “You said it was my fault? I give you a red card. I will go to Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] because he has got some spare money for the personnel in the team, so he can spend it on a trophy.”
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Thankfully for Verstappen, and for Norris, the trophy has a lifetime guarantee, meaning the Dutchman will receive a new award free of charge, as revealed by Herendi Porcelain Manufactory, who made the trophies.
“It is with great regret that we learned yesterday that the beautiful Herendi trophy, a handmade work of art, was damaged,” the firm’s chief executive Attila Simon told M4 Sport.
“It is the result of nearly six months of work by more than 30 people and we were very sorry to see this happen to our artwork.
“But we believe, and Herendi Porcelain Manufactory is a company that plays a key role in building the country’s image, that we will replace the trophy for the first place winner. And while the teams decide who was at fault and who was not, we will take on the joyful and heavy burden of this.”