In a interview on the grid on Saturday, Butler was seen wearing a McLaren shirt, with ‘Lando’ written in the top right.
The reporter played along with the gag and began asking him questions as if he was actually the McLaren driver.
“I can’t call you Jimmy. I’m calling you Lando, right? Why is that Lando?” she asked
“That’s who I aspire to be. He’s great, he’s young, he’s a little bit attractive, and so, I think it’s good to be him right now,” Butler responded.
When asked if it was his first time at an F1 event, he said: “I’ve been here a couple of times. I’ve been to Montreal. I want to go to Monaco, though. So, that’s the next one on my list.”
Asked if he has tried to fit into an F1 car, the 34-year-old said: “I have not, I don’t think I will and like I tell everybody, I don’t like to go fast. I want to drive slow, I drive like big cars, not small, fast ones.”
“Well, the real Lando goes very fast,” the reporter quickly adds.
To which Butler responds: “He does and I think that’s why I think I lied to you. My name’s really not Lando, it’s Jimmy, so that’s probably why I don’t get in these cars.”
Butler’s antics did not end there, as a video posted on McLaren’s X account show the American basketball player wondering around the team’s garage as if he was Norris.
“Show y’all around my garage, ‘garage’ if you’re American, y’all see the shirt? Yeah, that’s my name,” he points out.
He then proceeds to speak to the mechanics and other team members in the garage, keeping up the Norris gag.
“See this? How we doing, how we doing? That’s my car over there,” he says.
“Oh let me get out the way, I’m all up in people way. Actually I don’t gotta get out the way. I’m Lando! Y’all get out my way!”
Butler then manages to fit a mechanic’s helmet on, before taking a seat at the technical area opposite the garage trackside.
“Feel just like at home like I really know what I’m doing here. I’m very comfortable.”
The moment then comes where Butler gets to meet the real Norris and poses with a picture, as well as meeting team-mate Oscar Piastri.