During the podium celebration of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lando Norris unintentionally broke Max Verstappen’s winner’s trophy, which apparently cost $44,500 to make. Now, a month after that incident, Verstappen himself has given permission to Norris to “do whatever” he wishes with the winner’s trophy, as per F1TV.
The Red Bull driver, during the recent press conference at the Dutch Grand Prix, revealed that he does not get to keep the trophy with him, and the team takes it. Therefore, it does not matter if the trophy is in one piece or not.
It’s bwoken! 😮😂#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/nTtgdfWX3o
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 23, 2023
So, Norris, who was earlier embarrassed for his action at Hungaroring, seems to have a free pass now. However, the McLaren driver first needs to make sure he stands on the podium before he can think about the trophy.
Max Verstappen allows Norris to do “whatever” with the trophy
During the post-qualification press conference of the Dutch Grand Prix, journalists asked Verstappen whether he is ready to guard his trophy if Norris joins him on the podium.
The Red Bull star, who had an odd experience about this in Hungary, said, “I have to give the trophy to the team anyway.” Following this, he looked over to Norris and stated, “So, do what you want!”
max telling lando to do whatever he wants with his trophy and that were gonna discover whether its breakable or not 😭 pic.twitter.com/aOygZlDSsy
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) August 26, 2023
Seeing Norris as a possible contender for the podium yet again at Zandvoort, Verstappen might just be careful this time. With that, the two-time world champion also made another observation about the trophy.
Verstappen is ready to test the trophy
During the press conference, Max Verstappen also talked about the trophy he will get if he wins the race on Sunday. About this, he said, “I think this one [winner’s trophy] looks quite solid. I think this one’s a different material. I guess we’ll find out, yeah.”
While the defending champion was talking about the trophy, Lando Norris remained silent throughout. He did not utter a single word and decided to stay put with a guilty smile.
Nevertheless, Max Verstappen is surely expected to be ready to safeguard his trophy. On the other hand, Lando Norris would not want to be tagged as careless yet again. However, before everything else, they both need to make sure they cross the line in the top 3 after the lights go out at Zandvoort.
