Max Verstappen has always had a huge army of fans supporting him at Red Bull’s home race in Austria. Lovingly known as the orange army, hordes of fans line up on the stands donning orange and supporting Verstappen. However, Lando Norris likes to believe that the troops of fans wearing orange are actually supporting McLaren.
The 2023 Austrian GP saw yet another display of Verstappen domination as the Dutch driver won the race comfortably without anyone being able to challenge him. Another driver who had a strong showing in Austria was McLaren’s Lando Norris.
The Orange army..#F1 #MaxVerstappen #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/BhMgZAb2v7
— Racing (Commentary) (@Racingnews2015) July 2, 2023
He started the race in P4 and had a very close fight with Lewis Hamilton throughout the race. Norris finally managed to hold off the likes of the Mercedes and the Aston Martin to finish in P5. The fans voted him the driver of the day for his valiant efforts.
Lando Norris jokes that the Orange Army are McLaren supporters
When notified by his team that he had won Driver of the Day, Norris was very amazed. However, that did not stop him from joking about Verstappen’s Orange Army.
On being notified about his achievement, Norris took a cheeky dig at Verstappen and said, “Really? Aww so cute. It‘s because there are so many papaya fans here!”
Lando on being the DOTD : “Really? Aww so cute. It‘s because there are so many papaya fans here!”#AustrianGP
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) July 2, 2023
Papaya is how McLaren describes the orange color their team donned. Norris joked that the fans in orange are actually supporting the papaya-colored McLaren and not Max Verstappen, which is why so many of them voted in his favor and won him the Driver of the Day.
Is McLaren making a comeback?
Lando Norris had a very strong Austrian GP weekend. He qualified P4 for the main race and claimed P3 in the Sprint Qualifying. Even though the Sprint Race did not go according to plan, and he finished P9, Norris held strong during the main race.
All of this was because his McLaren MCL60 had received some major upgrades ahead of the Austrian GP weekend. His teammate Oscar Piastri did not get the same upgrades and will have to wait till the next race. It is safe to say that the upgrades worked wonders, and Norris showed considerable pace throughout the weekend.
Andrea Stella says Austria will be a “milestone” for #McLaren as they begin their upgrade roll-out 👀
“Ultimately for us it is a milestone in terms of possibly turning around the season…”#F1 #Formula1 #AustrianGP #MCL60 pic.twitter.com/keYfx4h0qm
— McLaren F1 News 🏴🇦🇺 (@TheMcLarenZone) June 28, 2023
It was not only the fans who appreciated Norris for his strong performance. Even Hamilton had words of praise for Norris after the race was over. The Mercedes driver said, “Lando did a great job today, McLaren were super quick.”
McLaren is set to bring another set of upgrades at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone. If they can keep up the rate at which they are improving, then it won’t be long before the Papaya outfit can fight for podiums.
