Government minister fires Lando Norris dig after F1 controversy and call for race ban

Who's the most fiercely defended driver in all of F1?

You might think it's Lewis Hamilton, with his years and years of success and off-track interests. You'd be wrong. You might think it's Max Verstappen, with his famous orange army, or Lando Norris and his...also orange army. Papayarmy? Either way: no.

It is, without question, Franco Colapinto. And as a number of drivers and FIA stewards have learned over the last 18 months, that's not necessarily a good thing.

Coming to his defence this time after he flew like a team-mate seeking missile into the side of Pierre Gasly at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, ending both of their races and Lando Norris' to boot? Argentina's foreign minister.

READ MORE: Lando Norris calls for FIA bans after Azerbaijan GP crash: 'Not driving that deserves to be in F1'

Argentine minister takes jab at Lando Norris

Pablo Quirno wasn't defending the massive mistake which led to the end of three drivers' races – although some have tried – but was instead hitting out at Norris, who called for the FIA to start being more strict and hand out race bans for expensive, 'careless' incidents like Saturday's.

Other drivers, including the three drivers who stood on the podium after the race, called a race ban too harsh a punishment for the mistake, regardless of the races it ruined and the parts it wrote off.

Quirno and many others moved to use the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix as a stick to beat Norris with, sarcastically pointing out that he didn't call for a penalty when he crashed into the back of his own team-mate late in that race.

Of course, the two situations are completely different – Norris was famously the only driver really affected by that crash, rather than spearing two cars off the road and into retirement.

"Sure," the – again – actual foreign minister of a country of some 46 million people wrote on Twitter: "Lando Norris called for a penalty for the driver who crashed into Oscar Piastri in Montreal 2025. Ah, no… right."

True to form, Colapinto fans have flooded Norris and McLaren's comment sections with abuse, much of it homophobic in nature, since the comments were made on Saturday afternoon.

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