Booing for Norris was completely misplaced: Lando actually deserves applause now

Booing in Formula 1 is a peculiar phenomenon to begin with. For years, F1 fans would go to a Grand Prix weekend to enjoy the sport. Twenty (or more) super-fast cars and the gladiators capable of taming those beasts - that's why people came to the tracks.

Over the past ten to twenty years, the sport has changed. Just like in football, more and more camps have formed. People have become fans of a specific team or a particular driver. This fanatical support for one team or person unfortunately often leads to the rival of your hero taking the flak.

Michael Schumacher already fell 'victim' to this when he won too much with Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel experienced the same when people got tired of him raising his index finger after each victory, and the same happened to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg when Mercedes left the rest of the field in the dust.

In 2023 and early 2024, Verstappen was repeated booed. Especially in South America, where fans of Sergio Perez truly believed they had a superstar of their own, they blamed Max and Red Bull that he—and not 'Checo'—was stringing together all the victories. Only at the end of 2024 did the penny seem to drop for Mexican fans: it wasn’t Max, it was 'Checo' himself.

The middle of the 2024 season was a turning point in public opinion overall. Until then, Verstappen had often been booed up to that point because he was supposedly “winning every race with the fastest car,” but Miami 2024 made it clear it wasn’t just the car. More and more people saw that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were actually driving a better McLaren, yet Verstappen continued to win.

As 2024 progressed, Verstappen was increasingly cheered on by the fans, especially when he ultimately became the champion. That trend continued in 2025, only the Dutchman won less often. And with Verstappen on the podium less frequently, the McLaren drivers more often became the butt of jokes.

Fans apparently also saw that the McLaren drivers had a much stronger car, but perhaps weren’t extracting quite enough. On the other hand, Verstappen was getting much more out of his inferior car than his rivals in the papaya machines.

On top of that came McLaren’s dubious team orders. The despised ‘Papaya Rules’ were quickly rejected by fans. Every race there was something that meant one driver had to let the other by, or that one had to stay ahead of the other. Races were, or so it seemed, manipulated by McLaren to make them “as fair as possible.”

A combination of those factors likely fueled the fans’ frustration, leading to Norris being booed in recent weeks. That they were fans of Verstappen was clear as they were chanting the Dutchman's well-known song during the British national anthem in Mexico and Brazil.

And while everyone is free to cheer and boo whenever they want, the Sao Paulo Grand Prix might have been the time to actually get behind Norris. Never before had he performed as well and as consistently as he did over the past weekends.

In fact, Norris had only once before won two Grands Prix in a row — in 2025, at the Austrian and British GPs. Still, on neither occasion was he as dominant as he is now.

In Austria, for instance, he was chased by his teammate, who was later spoken to by the team after a somewhat ambitious dive-bomb. A week later in the UK, Norris won, but that was largely thanks to Oscar Piastri's time penalty - a decision question by many fans.

In that sense, Norris did something in his career for the first time that he had never done before: perform in every session two weekends in a row. In Mexico and Brazil he was quick in every session. In Mexico, Norris was the quickest in FP3, qualifying, and the race. Then in Brazil, he topped every single session as well.

For years Norris has been seen as a great talent and a fast driver. His problem, however, has always been that his form fluctuates too much. There’s always at least one session in a race weekend—often more—where for whatever reason he can't quite string it all together.

That’s precisely why public opinion should shift a bit now. For the first time, Norris is doing what he has always been criticized for failing to do: consistently hit that high level. Sure, it’s only two races, but it’s a start. This should be applauded, not booed.

And for the critics: Yes, Norris is driving by far the best car on the grid, but that doesn’t make consistent performance any less impressive. What Verstappen did in 2023 was exceptional. Winning 19 times in one season. Did he have the best car? Absolutely. Does that make the achievement less impressive? No.

Norris is not at Verstappen’s level and, as he himself has honestly admitted before, he probably never will be. Moreover, it’s not his fault that he works in a team where some odd rules are sometimes implemented. Norris is doing what he can and for the first time, he is taking a step forward in terms of consistency. Let’s applaud that, instead of booing it.

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