Formula 1: Was Lando Norris’s slip-up a McLaren marketing ploy?

Was Lando Norris’s accidental revelation of the launch date for McLaren’s 2020 Formula 1 car really just a planned marketing ploy?

If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that McLaren revealed the launch date for their 2020 Formula 1 car, the MCL35, in the traditional fashion on Monday.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

At the team’s headquarters in Woking, England, Lando Norris took control of the team’s YouTube account and began livestreaming before making his way into a room in which several McLaren marketing employees were having a meeting.

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Told that the discussion was about the launch of the MCL35, Norris revealed what he supposedly should not have.

“I heard it was on the 13th of February,” stated Norris. “Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] told me it was on the 13th!”

Seconds later, after some whispering among the group, the camera was off and the livestream was over.

McLaren then revealed that Thursday, February 13 is indeed the date on which the MCL35 is set to launch ahead of the 2020 season, which is scheduled to get underway just over one month later on Sunday, March 15.

Y̶o̶u̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶r̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶.#MCL35
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) January 13, 2020

Here is this video.

Could this all have been a marketing ploy?

First of all, Norris stated that he was going to go visit the guys and girls in marketing — quite an interesting and seemingly random reason to start a livestream on your company’s account after figuring out the password. Coincidence or no?

Then before Norris entered the room, he made a specific note that there was a screen that said “MCL35 car launch” on it. He then stated, “confidential stuff!”. When he entered the room to visit, he specifically told the employees, “Don’t show me your papers or anything!”

Not even a minute and a half later, he proceeded to ask them what the meeting was about anyway, and he found himself revealing that exact “confidential stuff!” to a live audience of several thousand, supposedly without having the slightest clue of what he has just done even for quite a while afterward before the video was eventually shut off.

It is worth noting that Norris became one of the more goofy characters on the grid throughout his rookie season, so perhaps he was really this oblivious.

However, as of now, four of the 10 teams set to compete in the 2020 season have revealed their car launch dates, and McLaren were the third. It’s not like they mistakenly announced it last August or something. Then it would have made sense as a slip-up.

But the team were bound to announce it soon anyway, and Norris “let it slip”, garnering a ton of additional attention — a whole lot more than the team would have gotten had they gone about the usual way of announcing such an event.

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Was Lando Norris’s slip-up a part of McLaren’s plan all along to garner more publicity ahead of the launch of their 2020 Formula 1 car? At this point, it really doesn’t matter since what’s done is done, but if so, it was quite a genius move, as it totally worked.

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