The number of Formula 1 titles won by Lewis Hamilton remains a sore spot among the Mercedes racer's fans.
The official number is, of course, seven. His first came in just his second season in F1 as a McLaren driver, dramatically snatching the championship away from Felipe Massa on the last lap of the year in 2008. And the rest have followed since switching to his current Mercedes team.
He came within a whisker of becoming the only driver ever to win eight in 2021. But, infamously, Hamilton was overtaken by Max Verstappen on the last lap of the Abu Dhabi finale after race director Michael Masi's controversial handling of a late safety car period.
On social media, Hamilton's fans are regularly seen referring to their hero as an eight-time champion, regardless of the official result of that 2021 title race. Inevitably, this regularly leads to clashes with Verstappen supporters that escalate into huge arguments.
Undoubtedly, that's why Lando Norris felt he had to hide his face from view of his camera when, on a live stream this week, he accidentally suggested Hamilton had won eight titles. His faux pas came while speaking to his followers live on Twitch.
Referring to one of the racing helmets on the screen behind him, Norris pointed and said: "This one here? That's from when Lewis won his eighth world champ..." before stopping and bursting out into nervous laughter. He had meant to say seventh, as the helmet he was referring to was used in the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix when Hamilton matched Michael Schumacher's record of championship successes.
Norris is far from the first to make this error publicly. Even Verstappen's Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had to be corrected by reporters in Bahrain last month as he assessed a difficult start to the season for Hamilton and his Mercedes team.
"Obviously he had a horrible weekend but he's still an eight-time world champion," the Red Bull chief said, before explaining he had "forgot Nico Rosberg won one" when his mistake was pointed out.
Hamilton has also been introduced at events as an "eight-time world champion" in recent times, such as at a sponsor event in Malaysia between the races in Jeddah and Melbourne. It even happened in the Brazilian Congress chamber last year as the Brit was being officially made an honorary citizen of the South American country.
