Norris fires shot at de Vries after incident: “He’s done that a bit lately”
De Vries ran into the back of Norris’ McLaren on the run to Turn 1 on Lap 1 of Sunday’s race.
Norris’ race was ruined as a result, dropping down to 19th while sustaining damage which cost him approximately 0.2s to 0.3s per lap.
It capped off a miserable weekend for McLaren, who saw both of their cars knocked out in Q1.
Reflecting on his day in Miami, Norris was critical of de Vries, with the AlphaTauri under fire recently for his poor start to F1 2023.
"He's done that a bit lately, [he] needs to try braking a little bit earlier,” Norris said.
"I guess frustrating, it was just a long race, not enough speed to battle anyone and way out of the points.
"It is tough but I did what I could.
"[We] just need to keep trying to do what we are doing. We didn't do anything wrong, we just have a car that isn't quick enough at the minute, so [we need to] just keep working hard."
McLaren’s struggles were a surprise given how well they performed in Baku with their new upgrade package.
Team principal Andrea Stella revealed that both cars were managing issues during the race in Miami.
"Given our grid positions, we needed a good start, an eventful race and high tyre degradation in order to climb into the points,” Stella explained.
“Unfortunately, none of these conditions materialised and the race was a bit of a procession at the back for us. At the first corner, Lando was hit from behind after he had gained some positions, resulting in damage costing 2-3 tenths per lap, as well as relegating him to the back.
“Oscar had a race-long brake-by-wire problem and did an incredible job to cope with that through a minimising the consequences and keeping decent pace.
“Our main takeaway from Miami is that we were not quick enough this weekend. After scoring points in Baku, this weekend serves as a reality check on how much work we have ahead of us. The plan doesn’t change: we have good developments coming, we keep our heads down, regroup and go again in Imola."
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
