Lando Norris 'more embarrassing' than F1 rival, claims Ralf Schumacher

Ralf Schumacher claims that Lando Norris has hugely embarrassed himself following his near-miss at the recent Bahrain Grand Prix.

Norris was running P7 when behind the safety car he failed to acknowledge cars slowing in front of him. This forced him to having to run off the track to prevent colliding into the back of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Although Norris avoided a crash and damaging his car, he dropped to P9 where he would finish the race.

For Norris though, the incident came just a week after he called for Franco Colapinto to be banned.

At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Argentine locked his brakes heading into turn one after the safety car period ended, taking out his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly as well as Norris.

The world champion was fuming with Colapinto after the race, but now Ralf Schumacher has claimed Norris's Sepang incident makes the whole saga even more embarrassing for the British driver.

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Schumacher: Norris more embarrassing than Colapinto

Schumacher told Backstage Boxengasse: “Well, I’m absolutely certain that was on Norris’s mind, and I have to say quite honestly, the Norris incident was far more embarrassing – and he knows it too.

“When you’re just going on for ages, then you look to the right and to the left and have no idea what’s going on, and suddenly you realise there’s a car there – I mean, the cars were there the whole time – and then he nearly crashes into his teammate.

“I mean, he was lucky, really, otherwise he wouldn’t have got past at all. So, if the same thing happened in Baku, he’d crash into the wall. Yes, so in that respect, he did realise it.

Schumacher, who won six grands prix, gave Norris advice on how he would have handled the situation.

He added: “In my place, I’d have commented on it a bit more sportingly. He did, mind you – he’d noticed my facial expression – and he also said, ‘It’s my fault; it’s my job to keep the car on the track.’

“But I would have said, ‘Guys, I’m sorry, but I’ve run out of talent there. It looks absolutely daft. I’m more annoyed with myself, can you believe it?’

“And then I reckon that would have taken the pressure off a bit. And he could have added – he did apologise – that now I know how Colapinto feels. So nobody’s immune to making a mistake now and then.”

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