FIA President Speaks Out on Lando Norris Awards Incident Amid Punishment Fears
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has revealed whether he will hit Lando Norris with a fine following the incident at the 2025 FIA Prize Giving Ceremony on Friday.
Norris collected the Formula 1 drivers' championship trophy after winning the 2025 season.
He pipped Max Verstappen and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win the first F1 world title of his racing career.
Ben Sulayem was involved in not one but two bizarre exchanges with Norris when he presented the trophy to him at Friday's ceremony.
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The FIA chief messed the star driver's hair after doing the same thing at last weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He then had another awkward moment when he handed the trophy to Norris.
In his acceptance speech, Norris admitted that McLaren had 'our fair share of mistakes and f**k ups' during the F1 2025 season.
Ben Sulayem immediately joked by saying '5,000', referring to the ban imposed by the FIA on drivers swearing in professional settings.
He laughed that he had considered sanctioning Norris before pointing out that the money might be better spent on fixing the Brit's hair.
"First of all, when he said the 'eff', it was going to be a €5,000 fine," Ben Sulayem said before handing the trophy to the 26-year-old. "But now I think you need it for your hair after I messed it!"
What did Lando Norris say in his acceptance speech?
Norris joked about his hair before reflecting on his triumphant F1 2025 season.
He also paid tribute to McLaren, teammate Piastri, who finished third in the drivers' championship standings, and Red Bull's Verstappen, who missed the ceremony through illness.
"Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Pleasure to be here in Uzbekistan for the first time," he began.
"I hope my hair is not too bad now. I put so much effort into that.
"Where do I start? Obviously, I’ll start with these guys. Congratulations and thank you to McLaren, the team I’ve been with for many, many years, on giving both of us an incredible car that, at times, made our life very easy and beautiful and we could bring home many wins all the way to the end of the season.
"Of course, Mr. Piastri, the incredible teammate that I’ve had, who’s helped me improve so much over the last few seasons and made us a team that we are, allowed McLaren to turn into the team, winning two constructors’ back-to-back.
"Of course, to Max as well for challenging us the whole way, putting us under pressure, just doing what Max always does!"
Norris added: "But it was incredible. Obviously, this is a lot of people’s dreams, a lot of racing drivers’ dreams and I got to finally live it, live that one dream that I had when I was a little kid.
"I remember standing on the stage many, many years ago, 2014 I think it was, standing on stage with [Sir] Jackie [Stewart]. Even before that, I think.
"So it’s been amazing to grow up here alongside a lot of you guys, to live it with McLaren, to get to race all the world champions that I’ve been racing against: Lewis, Max, Seb [Vettel], Fernando [Alonso], all the incredible drivers that I looked up to and watched when I was a little kid and get that chance to race against them, to try beat them, to show what I can do against them all and we managed to do that this year.
"So I’m very proud, very happy. Of course, I got very emotional on Sunday after the race, then got extremely drunk and had an amazing time.
"So thank you very much, everyone. Thanks to you guys here. A pleasure."
Topics: Lando Norris, Formula 1
Nasir Jabbar