Lando Norris makes staggering claim as he addresses his public mistakes

Norris's remarks come after several tense exchanges with reporters. After the Singapore Grand Prix sprint, where he clashed with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, a Viaplay reporter asked whether the move had been worth it in a sprint. Norris asked: "What's the title of the race?" The clip went viral after the reporter answered "race" and Norris shot back with a sarcastic "Wow, good job."

Brundle told Norris that his reaction in Singapore had been "really feisty". The McLaren driver did not argue the point. "I'm not the best in front of the media sometimes," he said.

Norris said what bothers him most is that he might have offended someone. "I hate the fact when I say the wrong things, or I might disrespect someone when I say something, I hate that," he explained. He went on to say that respect has to work in both directions: "There's a line. There's nothing more that I love than respect: receiving respect, and I also know that has to go the other way."

He was just as candid about the sprint move on Piastri itself. "But there's no excuse, I shouldn't have done what I did on my teammate," Norris said, adding that the racer in him thought the move was fine while "the heart I have for McLaren knew what I did was completely wrong and incorrect."

Singapore was not the first time this autumn that Norris had to walk back his words. In September, Franco Colapinto locked up at Turn 1 on the first Safety Car restart of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and took out both Norris and Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly. Straight after the race, Norris said: "There's just some drivers that shouldn't be in Formula 1, to be honest." He also suggested that Colapinto should be banned.

Two days later, Norris said on Instagram that he had messaged Colapinto to apologise for "the comments I made that I simply should not have said", and that the pair were still good friends. The stewards gave Colapinto a 10-second time penalty, which became a five-place grid drop for the following round in Malaysia.

Norris is looking back on these moments during a difficult title defence. He finished fifth at the United States Grand Prix, 30 seconds behind winner Kimi Antonelli, and that result ended his mathematical chance of keeping the crown. He sits sixth in the standings on 211 points, 154 behind the Mercedes driver.

McLaren brought upgrades to Austin, but Norris said the team is still well short in slow-speed corners. As Norris reflected on his rather limp title defence, he was asked whether McLaren now has the fourth-fastest car, he replied: "Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious."