Herbert: Baseless boos will just drive Norris to victory

It has been one of the more curious subplots to emerge as the Formula One season races to its finale. Amid a three-way battle for the title, Lando Norris was the one (finally, some may say) who shut out the white noise and stormed to two maximum- point-scoring weekends in Mexico and Brazil.

- KIERAN JACKSON

Only, with eyebrows arched upwards across the paddock, the happy-as-Larry Briton was not a beloved figure on the podium.

Norris – who has for many years been one of the sport’s most popular drivers – was booed by fans in the grandstands in Mexico City and Sao Paulo. In both instances, the cacophony of noise was peculiar, in as much as there was no obvious reason for the reception. No controversial moves, no patriotic sentiment, no long-held distaste.

The widely-coined view is that fans are voicing their displeasure at the supposed favouritism within McLaren for Norris over Oscar Piastri. Even that is heavily contrived. However, much to the enjoyment of Johnny Herbert, the oddballs on the terraces have only served to trigger Norris’s best form to date. This is Lando locked in.

“He doesn’t deserve that reception at all,” ex-F1 driver Herbert tells The Independent. “People who show their displeasure in that way are very, very stupid. If someone does something that’s really bad, then sure, I understand it. But with Lando it’s about this ‘favouritism’ thing with Oscar, which I just don’t get.

“People say Monza [in September, when Piastri ceded second place to Norris at the team’s request], but I remember Hungary last year [when Norris gave up a race win for Piastri] and nobody booed Oscar then.”