Lando Norris on the pyrotechnics mishap on the F1 podium: “I thought it was a fly”

Double blow for Lando Norris after his race win at Interlagos! The Briton won the São Paulo Grand Prix at the weekend, keeping his cool during the wet race on the twisty circuit. However, during the podium celebrations afterwards, Lando Norris’s luck apparently ran out: first he smashed the champagne bottle in his hand, then he burnt his ear on the fireworks. Now he’s talking about the bizarre incident.

Norris likes to celebrate wildly on the podium, usually smashing his champagne bottle onto the ground so that the cork pops out the top. That doesn’t always go to plan: in Hungary in 2023, Max Verstappen’s winner’s trophy was knocked off the podium by the force of the impact, and the delicate porcelain trophy shattered. And now in Brazil, Norris shattered the entire bottle in his hand – he was left holding only the razor-sharp neck of the bottle. But it got even worse: Norris stumbled into the fireworks, which shot upwards from the podium like a giant sparkler. He then held his ear, looking noticeably flustered.

A few days later, Norris gave the all-clear during a stream on the gaming platform Twitch: everything was fine (apart from the bottle)! Norris answered a question: “How’s my ear? My ear’s fine. Thanks for asking!”

Lando Norris on the podium mishap

And then he explained what had happened. The McLaren driver said: “Everyone’s asking, ‘Why did you walk into that?’ It’s because champagne splashed into my eyes and I couldn’t see a thing. I didn’t know where I was going. I don’t think people realise just how much it hurts and stings when you’ve got champagne in your eyes.” Norris’s own champagne sadly trickled across the podium after the bottle was smashed, but the two Red Bull Racing drivers, Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, shared the podium with Norris – and were already busy spraying champagne, as was McLaren team representative Andrew Parker (Design Department).

Norris accidentally leaned right into the fireworks: “I didn’t know where I was going, and suddenly it got quite warm by my ear. I couldn’t see it, but I felt it. I was already in shock because my bottle had broken for the first time in my life. But it didn’t hurt. I think I just felt something on my ear and thought it was a fly.”