Lando Norris X-Rated Radio Message Emerges After ‘Illegal’ Red Bull Tactic

Lando Norris' engineer vented on his team radio with an x-rated message to his driver following an incident with Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda which was investigated by the stewards at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Having qualified in pole position, Max Verstappen made a strong start to the final race of the campaign and led for 23 laps as he pushed for a fifth consecutive Formula One crown.

And his teammate Tsunoda, in his final race for Red Bull after being demoted in the 2026 season, tried to help him out when Norris went after him in a bid to get back into third - a position that would guarantee a first ever Drivers' Championship win.

The engineer told Tsunoda, “We expect Norris to be in your DRS in 1 Lap. When he catches up, give it your all," - to which the Japanese driver replied, "I know what to do, leave it to me".

Desperately trying to avoid Norris going past him Tsunoda ended up forcing the Brit off track as he overtook.

The incident was reported to race control, with Martin Brundle weighing in with his analysis on Sky Sports.

Brundle said: "Did he keep a bit of tire on the white line? You're only allowed to move once, it's absolutely clear in the regulations, you cannot weave like that. That is absolutely against the regulations. Lando Norris was off the track. The team will say of course he was, he was pushed there. You absolutely cannot do what Tsunoda just did. Red Bull will be pushing this hard now, they'll say he overtook off the track. I'm sure McLaren will be pushing back as well. The stewards will have to be firm on all of that."

Here's a replay of Norris overtaking Tsunoda 👀#F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/qi6NGBEECg

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 7, 2025

In the end, Tsunoda was given a five second penalty for "more than one change of direction" - while no further action was taken against Norris.

On McLaren team radio, engineer Will Joseph noted the move from Red Bull, calling it "s***thousery".

Joseph said, “We’re on it with Tsunoda [to the stewards], that was classic Red Bull s***housery”.

Tsuonda's reaction to five second penalty

Meawhile, Tsunoda was stunned to learn he was penalised and soon dropped down the positions as a result of serving his penalty.

Tsunoda said, "What penalty bro?!” when the news was relayed, with an engineer repeating, “We got a penalty for moving twice in defence to Norris, head down".

Norris found his pace and appeared comfortable, but Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was still hot on his trail as he proved to be the McLaren driver's biggest threat to his title ambitions.