Lando Norris says champagne in his eyes is why he walked into the pyrotechnics on the F1 São Paulo GP podium, a moment he says cost him “all aura from the win.”
Norris’s celebration went wrong from the start after his win in the F1 São Paulo GP. He usually opens his champagne by banging the bottle on the floor of the podium.
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He did the same at Interlagos, but the Moët & Chandon bottle broke immediately. Then, with champagne in his eyes, he walked into the podium pyrotechnics, which caught his ear. He wasn’t hurt.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, alongside him on the podium, saw the funny side. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was more concerned. “I have not talked to him,” Stella said. “I have not checked, but I understand he is all right. And I understand that he had an incident with the pyrotechnic, not with the bottle.
“Okay, I think the bottle didn’t go well either because it seemed like he had only the upper part, but I think he was just surprised by the… when he was going for the bottle. I understand that pyrotechnics started, so you actually may be more informed than me. I don’t know much. The only thing I needed to know was that he is okay.”
A day later, the McLaren driver explained what happened while streaming on Twitch. He said he had been sprayed in the eyes with champagne, so he couldn’t see where he was going.
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“How’s my ear? My ear’s fine,” Norris said. “Thanks for asking. The problem is, everyone’s like, why do you walk into it? It’s because I got sprayed with champagne in my eyes, so then I couldn’t see anything.
“I didn’t know where I was going, I don’t think people realize how much it hurts and stings having champagne in your eyes. I didn’t know where I was moving, and all of a sudden, it just got pretty warm in my ear.
“Also, I couldn’t see it, so I just felt it, though. And I was already in shock that my bottle broke for the first time in my life, but it didn’t hurt. I think you just felt something in my ear and thought it was a fly,” Norris said.
The 2025 champion laughed off any injury, but said the moment took the shine off his win. “I’m hard as nails,” he continued in his chat with friend Max Fewtrell. “I hit my bottle and had a little moment where I was like, ‘Oh my God, my hand is gone!’ I lost all aura from the win.”
