Lando Norris finished the Spanish Grand Prix of Formula 1 in third place, but his attitude after the race drew criticism from Guenther Steiner. The former Haas boss described as ‘unprofessional’ the fact that the McLaren driver took a can of Coca-Cola into the cooling room.
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The situation happened after the race, when Norris entered the area reserved for drivers with the drink. He was instructed to put it away because Formula 1 has a partnership with a competing company, PepsiCo, but he replied that he had just finished a race and could drink whatever he wanted.
Steiner commented on the episode on the podcast The Red Flags and stated that Norris should have respected the existing commercial rules in the category: “If you are a professional, you don’t do that. Period. You know what you can and cannot do. You are well trained. He shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
The former Haas boss, however, acknowledged that the episode did not cause serious consequences: “Is it a bad thing he did? Is anyone going to get hurt? No. But, as a professional, you shouldn’t do that. But he did. And you know what? I couldn’t care less,” he added.
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For Steiner, the situation ended up having an unexpected effect for Coca-Cola itself. According to him, the attempt to prevent the can from appearing in the cooling room made the episode gain even more attention.
“For Coca-Cola, it ended up working very well. If they hadn’t said anything, no one would have even noticed, but since they gave it so much importance now, it became a topic, and now Coca-Cola is laughing,” he concluded.
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