"Lando Norris hate is going too far" - Fans react to Red Bull sharing McLaren driver's message to Max Verstappen after his Brazilian GP win

Lando Norris received enormous flak following his comment on Max Verstappen's victory at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 3. In a post-race interview, the McLaren driver said Verstappen got "lucky" with the pit stop, which helped him win the race. As Norris' criticism started to go above and beyond, Red Bull came up with an appreciation post for the McLaren star, to which fans reacted positively.

Verstappen delivered a mighty performance at the Brazilian GP after he started the race from P17 and won with 19 seconds to spare. With this, he not only claimed his eighth GP win of the season but also extended his Championship lead to 62 points.

Norris, on the other hand, had a disastrous outing. He started the race from the pole position but failed to deliver and came home in P6. Following the race, an unhappy Norris appeared for an interview, where he commented on Verstappen's luck.

However, the McLaren driver also praised his Championship rival on Instagram after the Red Bull driver uploaded a photo from Brazil. The Christian Horner-led team took this positively. They shared the photo on X with a "Respect @LandoNorris" caption.

As the photo surfaced on the micro-blogging site, fans applauded Red Bull for standing up with the British driver amid criticism. Here are some reactions taken from X:

"Lando hate is going too far. They take his words out of context but he isn't the bad guy F1 twitter wants him to be," a fan wrote.

Asking the Max Verstappen fan accounts to stop criticizing Lando Norris, another fan wrote:

"I need big MV accounts to STOP posting shit about Lando all because you're doing is leaving the door open for even more people to say disgusting shit about him."

"It's nice to see this post. So many people have been shitting on Lando. He even took down an IG story where he tagged Max," wrote another fan, reiterating the same.

"Yhh admin knows he’s been getting hate for something that has been put out of context . Thanks for posting this," another fan wrote, thanking Red Bull.

A fan wrote along the same lines:

"rb admin doing mclarens work better than mclaren shocker (not really)."

"Red Bull doing more to help stop the Lando Hate than McLaren," a fan wrote, pointing out how Red Bull was doing McLaren's part.

Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and other drivers praised Max Verstappen after his brilliant drive amid treacherous conditions.

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McLaren boss shares contradictory statements on Lando Norris' title challenge

Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri of the McLaren F1 Team. Source: Getty

Following the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Lando Norris' Drivers' Championship was never the priority for the team. He added that the Papayas always prioritized the Constructors' Championship fight against Red Bull and others.

“In terms of the constructors’ championship, I don’t think it changes anything," Stella told the media (via ESPN). "It was always our priority. Even when there was a call to be made to support one driver or the other, it was always secondary to maximising the constructors’ championship.”

This turned out to be contradictory as McLaren, on multiple occasions, have asked Oscar Piastri to give up his position and help Norris. Most recently in Brazil, McLaren used team order to ask Piastri to fall back and hand over the Sprint race lead to Lando Norris.