Lando Norris wandered into Lewis Hamilton’s media session on Thursday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, with the seven-time World Champion having embarrassed the young Brit.
Hamilton shouted “wrong team” to the McLaren driver when he noticed that Norris had walked into Mercedes’ hospitality area, resulting in laughter from those in attendance.
Norris will be hoping that McLaren are able to take the fight to Mercedes once again this weekend at the Hungaroring, having defeated the Silver Arrows at the last two races.
The 23-year-old put on an immense defensive display at the British Grand Prix last time out to deny Hamilton second place, something the McLaren driver claimed for himself.
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Recent upgrades have certainly improved the MCL60, to the extent where they are seen as potential challengers to Red Bull.
Despite the praise, Norris insists that he still can’t drive the car how he wants to, with it not playing to his “strengths at all”.
“You have to drive it quite one way but it’s also a way that I don’t want to drive or like to drive,” Norris told Sky Sports F1.
“I don’t like to drive the car the way that I have to drive it now. I feel like it isn’t to my strengths at all.
“I want to be able to carry minimum speed and U a corner and the last thing I can do in the world now is U a corner. I have to V the corner more than ever and I’ve never been the biggest fan of doing that and I don’t like it that much.
“It still changes every year, you have to adapt a lot as a driver and far away from the car I want to be able to drive.”
Hamilton has made similar complaints about the W14, which continues to be comfortably slower than Red Bull’s RB19.
Progress has been made by Mercedes, but they are certainly nowhere near being labelled as title contenders.
Despite this, Hamilton is adamant that he will remain with Mercedes next season, despite a new deal having still not been announced.
The seven-time World Champion revealed in Hungary that an announcement might not be made until the end of the season, but that “there’s no negotiation left”.
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“It might be announced at the end of the year, I don’t know,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 on Thursday.
“Honestly, I just don’t have any more information for you to share this week. It’s with the lawyers, back and forth. I’ve not been a part of it the whole time.
“I’ve been removed from it from the beginning. I wanted to be able to focus on all the other things that I have going on. The team are working on it in the background. There’s no negotiation left, it’s just all the small bits.”