Lando Norris reveals why he skipped karting with F1 drivers

Ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, several Formula 1 drivers, including George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto and Oscar Piastri, went karting. They were also joined by former F1 driver Roberto Merhi.

Norris did multiple activities on the boys' trip, but he did not go to karting with the others. He explained to GPblog, among others: "Everyone else went karting, and I did a bit of training, and I stayed in. I didn't go to the karting. I certainly don't think from what I heard, it made anyone treat each other better, and be honest, I think it made it even worse. And from what I heard, everyone put each other in the wall at some point."

Therefore, Norris does not believe spending time with your rivals off the circuit makes things better once the helmet and gloves go on.

The defending world champion continued: "I think people are able to separate personal life and personal time from when you’re putting a helmet on. I think you become two different people. You are two different versions of yourself.

"I don’t agree with that kind of statement that racing is more friendly. I think at times it’s the opposite of that. But it’s nice that we get to just be normal people away from the track, have a bit of downtime and get to see maybe a different side of people. That’s a good thing as well," the McLaren driver concluded.

According to the timesheet from the F1 drivers' karting race, the Mercedes driver set the quickest lap time. However, the Briton admitted he had no clue who actually won the race, as it was 'absolute carnage.'