Ahead of this season’s Dutch Grand Prix, we remember a cheeky interview Lando Norris gave last season to Ziggo Sport.
Ziggo used to cover Formula 1 races for the Netherlands, before Viaplay took broadcasting rights from them ahead of the 2022 season.
One of their journalists, Jack Plooij, became notorious for his amusing banter with the drivers, as they went into fits of giggles while speaking to each other.
He and Daniel Ricciardo distracted Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Japanese Grand Prix in 2019 when they held a musical note for a good 10 seconds, with the Monegasque forgetting what he was about to say in the media pen as he looked behind him to see what the noise was.
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Last season, Norris stopped by for a chat in the media pen with Ziggo, and the popular Dutch interviewer invited him out for some fun in the country’s capital, Amsterdam.
“Shall we go to Amsterdam tonight?” asked Plooij.
“Amsterdam? I’ve never been, so if you want to…” replied Norris.
“They can give you a good massage in Amsterdam,” said the cheeky Dutchman.
“Yeah?” said the McLaren driver, before McLaren’s then press officer, Charlotte Sefton, amusingly touched Norris’ arm to prevent him from saying something he should not.
The 22-year-old finished 10th in Zandvoort last year ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, during a weekend in which McLaren generally struggled.
Ahead of this season’s edition though, the Briton was more optimistic of a more competitive performance after the team walked away from the last race in Belgium with no points.
“High-downforce, so hopefully moves us a little bit more back in line with Budapest’s kind of pace, I hope,” Norris said, as per Motorsport.com.
READ: Lando Norris reveals why McLaren had a ‘Plan G’
“But you never know, it was our worst track last season, so I’m hoping this year it’s not the case, because some of the problems that we had in previous years are maybe not so evident this year.
“And we’ve got other problems, so we’ll see, it can’t be a lot worse I hope than this weekend.”
McLaren head into this weekend 20 points behind Alpine in the battle for fourth in the championship after Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finished fifth and seventh, respectively, at the Belgian Grand Prix.