"Maybe would have suited George more" - Lando Norris takes a sly dig at Mercedes with his helmet design

Ahead of the 2022 Miami Grand Prix, Lando Norris debuted his new NBA-inspired basketball helmet design. At Friday's drivers' press conference, he joked about Mercedes' struggles with porpoising, insinuating that the basketball would have suited George Russell better, given the way his car bounces.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the helmet design and why it would be better suited for the Briton, Lando Norris said:

“It’s just a basketball. If you’re asking about the inspiration, I think it’s quite obvious, it’s just a basketball. I kinda knew everyone was going to go for palm trees and boring stuff. I just wanted to do something very different. Yeah, it’s not elegant and ‘wow’, it’s just simple and different to what people would have thought. It’s cool, the guys did a great job in actually making it look like a basketball, it’s not so simple and it’s textured like the basketball as well so it’s cool. Maybe it would have suited George more considering they’re bouncing a bit more, that could have been better.”

After eight consecutive championship titles for the Silver Arrows, the team is visibly struggling in the new era of F1, with porpoising right at the heart of all their troubles. Lando Norris secured his first podium of the season at Imola two weeks ago, while George Russell just missed out on it and came fourth.

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"As good as anyone in Formula 1" - McLaren's faith in Lando Norris

McLaren team boss Zak Brown revealed that the team has shown their faith in Lando Norris with a long-term contract extension as he believes that in terms of "pure natural talent", the Briton is on par with the rest.

As reported by formula1.com, he admitted that Norris has a tendency to make a few mistakes, but certainly has the pace and talent to fight for the title. The American said:

“He is, in my opinion, as good as anyone in Formula 1. Unbelievably fast. But... there are a lot of fast drivers in Formula 1. I think the part I’m most impressed with with Lando is how few mistakes he makes. And his mistakes are small, a track limit, locked up a brake; you haven’t seen him many times put the car in the fence, run wide on a corner under pressure and make a mistake. I think as far as pure natural talent, I think he has as much as anyone in Formula 1.”

Pointing out three different instances in the past where Norris had a real chance of securing his maiden Grand Prix weekend but missed out, Brown added, saying:

“I think as long as we continue to show forward progress, he will be satisfied his win is not far away. I mean, he could have won three races in a row last year. In Monza, there was nothing between he and Daniel, in Russia had it not been for the call at the end of the race, that race was his to win. And Spa, he was the fastest person in qualifying by some margin all the way up until he had his accident.”

Lando Norris currently stands sixth in the drivers' standings with a total of 35 points.