Lando Norris responds to Lewis Hamilton’s suggestion that Mercedes uses a kind of “party mode” in qualifying—the McLaren driver has some strong words to say about it
After qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton voiced a controversial suspicion: The longtime Mercedes driver believes his former team has a special engine mode that unlocks additional power during qualifying.
The Brit, who is still very familiar with how his former team operates, can’t explain Ferrari’s deficit any other way. In the past, it wasn’t unusual for engines to have a so-called “party mode” that temporarily unleashed more power.
But party mode has been banned since the 2020 season. And World Champion Lando Norris, who also uses a Mercedes engine in his McLaren, directly dismisses the record-holding champion’s speculation: “No, we don’t,” the 26-year-old clarifies.
Lando Norris is clear: “Sometimes you just mess around”
“Maybe he’s still used to the old days when it was still around,” Norris adds with a smile, recalling a phase in which Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominated the premier class not only thanks to the controversial Party Mode.
However, that has been over since the 2020 Italian Grand Prix: With Technical Directive TD037/20, the FIA put a stop to the special engine mode in qualifying, though without the hoped-for effect: The gap to the competition, particularly Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, did not narrow as a result of the ban.
Does Norris believe that Mercedes is using a similar mode in qualifying again without passing this advantage on to the customer teams? “No,” the McLaren driver says firmly, adding a slight dig at Hamilton: “Sometimes you just mess around a bit.”