A trashed hotel room or an ejection from a swimming pool is usually the sign of a pretty successful night out, so Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris can certainly tick that one off the list.
Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix last weekend, the McLaren pair were discussing some of their craziest moments while on the sesh, and the Australian divulged that he had made quite the mess at his Hilton hotel room one time.
“I mean, I didn’t merely trash the room, I trashed the whole floor,” he said on the panel of a Hilton x McLaren event, at which Paris Hilton was present.
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Norris recalled a story from his debut season in 2019 when his team took over the swimming pool, but were celebrating so hard they got removed, so reconvened in their rooms.
“We got kicked out of the pool. We were being naughty in the pool and everyone, not just me, got kicked out. So we went up to the rooms [and] had a nice party in the rooms,” he added.
“And that was that, so I apologize if there were any disturbed people in the ground above and the ground below. But yeah, it was good fun.”
Hilton have been keeping McLaren drivers comfortable on their travels since 2005, and Ricciardo thanked them for the tremendous work they do in making sure everything is set for him to attack the weekend.
“I will say something that’s not too crazy, but they do very well at helping me stay fresh on race day,” he explained.
“There’s been many times where we sweat in our suits and sometimes we use too many on a race weekend and we need to get them expressed cleaned or washed in a short amount of time.
“They’re very quick and efficient with bringing smelly dirty clothes back clean and wonderful.”
Norris retired from the race in Miami after taking a whack from Pierre Gasly, which gave him an unfortunate puncture, while a start-up issue in qualifying and a car on Sunday that simply did not have the capacity to compete for the points left the Australian in P13.
The 22-year-old stated that it was “game over” if the drivers left the racing line due to the lack of grip away from the racing line, and Ricciardo concurred that the surface was probably not up to the standard he might have expected.
“I want to say no, but, obviously, that could just be us being too spoiled,” he told RacingNews365.com.
“But let’s say, for what we have been used to – let’s just put it like that – it’s certainly a little more outback spec.
“It reminds me of some of the surface that I’ve got on my farm in Australia, that loose Australian gravel. In an off-road car, it’s fun, but these Pirelli [tyres] aren’t quite as switched on to this loose tarmac.
“It would be nice if it was a little different and we could use more of the track. When you’re following someone, you want to run a little wide and cut back, criss-cross. When you try to criss-cross, you’re off track.
“I saw people trying to make a move and crashing, like with [Sebastian] Vettel, [as] there was no grip on the inside. It made it hard to keep a clean race.”
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McLaren’s scoreless afternoon in Florida was their second of the season, but they remain fourth in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of Alfa Romeo, for whom Valtteri Bottas has been the main bread winner this season.
After the weekend, Norris headed to a night club with Pierre Gasly, while Sir Lewis Hamilton spent the night out with his physiotherapist Angela Cullen.