Norris doesn’t blame F1 Las Vegas track for accident

The McLaren driver crashed heavily on the third lap of the race when his car snapped out of control at the Turn 11 left-hander.

After the race his team boss Andrea Stella highlighted a bump at that point of the track, suggesting that needed to be flattened out next year.

However, speaking for the first time since the accident, Norris suggested his off was caused by a perfect storm of factors, with the bump just one of them.

"A combination of things," he said when asked about the cause. "The obvious one being there is quite a big bump there. Then cold tyres, so therefore lower ride heights than what you normally running with.

"The first time following a lot of cars through all of this, you have even less downforce than what you already have. And then a couple of other little things in the background that just made this bump have a bigger effect than what it normally has.

"I think I've somehow must have caught it at a worse angle than normal. I always knew there was a bump there.

"But just for some reason, the effects of it on this one lap seemed a lot bigger than what it had done previously. So just a little bit unlucky at the same time."

Photo by: Zak Mauger /

Lando Norris, McLaren

Asked if the track should be changed he downplayed the suggestion.

"Like I said, it was a combination of things," he noted. "So for all of those things to happen again and to cause this is quite rare. Probably if I tried to drive everything the same now, it's not a guarantee that it would happen again.

"So if I was 30 centimetres to the right or to the left, maybe it would be different. If there was one less car ahead of me would have been different. If I clipped the battery a little bit earlier it would have been different. There's so many different circumstances.

"I think the track is okay. It's not the best track I've ever driven, if it was just higher grip. I think the tarmac made it a lot worse than what every driver would have wanted."

Norris insisted that even in the immediate aftermath of the crash he felt OK, despite being taken to a local hospital for checks.

"Honestly, I was never bad," he said. "They just wanted to do a lot of check-ups, kind of the new norm nowadays, it seems. But I was fine.

"I was winded, that was probably what you heard on the radio and stuff when I had the impact, I breathed in or breathed out at the wrong time, and it just kind of caught me off guard a little bit.

"It happened quite quickly. Still a decent impact. But I was fine, I never struggled with anything. I was more just frustrated that I was out of the race in Vegas so early on. So it was more just a shame. But I was fine.

"I've been advised ever since to just chill out and relax for a few days. But I was good, since I pretty much jumped out the car, a little shaken at first, but just because it caught me by surprise so much, what happened, But then all good after that."

Photo by: Jake Grant /

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60

Norris admitted that he was realised that an opportunity was wasted after he saw how much pace team-mate Oscar Piastri had in the race.

The Australian ran as high as third but eventually finished 10th after having to make a late stop under green flag conditions, which did at least help him secure the fastest lap.

"Yeah, of course," he said when asked if he was left frustrated. "I was watching, I tried to watch it as much as I could from the hospital, even in the heli when I was leaving I was like trying to watch everything!

"So, unfortunate. It just looked like a fun race. Turn 1 was pretty chaotic. Quite a bit of carelessness from a lot of people, but otherwise looked like a fun race. And Oscar had good pace. So a shame to miss out on it.

"But it happens every now and then, crashes. I think have been one of the best drivers in terms of avoiding things, even in the last five years. I'd say one of my strengths is staying out of trouble a lot of the time.

"It wasn't just like a careless mistake, it wasn't like I locked up and drove into someone it was just a very unlucky moment. So yeah, a shame, but it happens that it's my first crash really since Spa 2021."