McLaren started the season toward the back of the grid, while Red Bull set the marker for everyone. McLaren introduced a significant upgrade package over the past few weeks to close the gap to Red Bull significantly. Lando Norris has been maximizing the MCL60’s potential and finding himself next to Max Verstappen more frequently. Being in the public eye, the duo uses the opportunities to engage in playful banter, which the F1 world now terms a “bromance.” But Verstappen’s banter after the podium celebrations in Hungary might’ve hit a little too close to home for McLaren.

Whenever Max and Lando are together, it’s almost certain something out-of-the-ordinary is bound to happen. And most recently, that was on the podium after the Hungarian GP. After Verstappen’s win and Sergio Perez‘s third place, the Red Bull side of the podium was celebrating their 12th consecutive win. But behind them, disaster struck when Norris did his trademark smash-the-champagne-bottle-on-the-podium celebration and broke Verstappen’s $45,000 handcrafted porcelain first-place trophy. Although Norris continued his celebrations, when Max saw the state of his trophy, he said to Norris, “I will send Zak [Brown] the bill because he has a big budget with all the hiring [he is doing].”

This referenced how McLaren convinced Rob Marshall, Red Bull’s Chief Engineering Officer, to jump ship from Milton-Keynes to Woking. After working with Red Bull for 17 years, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown convinced him to join the team when it was almost down in the dumps. Stella said, “I think people also understand that turning things around at McLaren now, and winning at McLaren, means making history in Formula 1.” And it seemed to have worked because Marshall will be joining McLaren in 2024 as its Technical Director for Engineering & Design.

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Poaching other teams’ key figures isn’t considered a good-natured move, which is why the so-called banter Max Verstappen engaged in must’ve struck a chord with McLaren. And although Verstappen blamed Norris for destroying his trophy, Lando believes Max can only blame himself.

Lando Norris holds Max Verstappen accountable for what happened

After what happened on the podium in Silverstone—where Lando used Max’s podium step as the base to smash his bottle and caused Max’s trophy to fall—you would’ve thought he wouldn’t do the same in Hungary. But he did, and it led to graver consequences. But in the post-race press conference, when he was asked what happened on the podium, Norris said, “Max just placed [his trophy] too close to the edge. It fell over, I guess. Not my problem. It’s his!” 

To be fair, though, he apologized to Max and even suggested a fix. He posted a screenshot of the Japanese Kintsugi technique used to repair broken pottery. McLaren joined in on the apologies, too, posting the video of Lando’s shenanigans and captioning it, “We are so, so sorry…@redbullracing and @Max33Verstappen! 🫣” Red Bull took inspiration from Max and Lando’s banter and replied, “We’re gonna need some glue 👀”

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What did you think of what Max Verstappen said about poaching Red Bull personnel to Lando Norris?