Lando Norris - McLaren F1 Driver
Lando Norris Career Overview and Fast Links
Career Overview
2021 McLaren F1 Launch
Route to F1
F1 McLaren (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Fast Facts
Lando Norris F1 Career Overview
Lando Norris will compete with the McLaren F1 Team in the 2022 F1 World Championship for what will be his fourth full season in F1 and with the British team.
Considered the ‘fresh face’ of motorsport’s new generation, Norris has won a legion of fans in two short seasons through his canny on-track demeanour and his refreshingly witty approach to off-track obligations.
The Briton openly regards his skills behind the wheel to have been honed by the innovations of esports and gaming, leading a fresh wave of talent that have been claiming to do the same, such as George Russell and Alex Albon. It has also enabled him to tap into a fresh demographic more suited to using social media or watching Twitch and YouTube than necessarily tuning into watching F1 races on television.
That’s not to say Norris doesn’t have real world credentials. A member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme, Norris was backed from young age by the same brains behind Lewis Hamilton’s route to superstardom and has duly earned his spot in F1 with exceptional junior results.
To date [January 2022] he has started 60 F1 races and scored five podiums.
Lando Norris - Route to F1
Having originally set a course for racing on motorcycles, thus emulating his hero Valentino Rossi, Norris instead settled on four-wheel competition and demonstrated his flair behind the wheel with a win in the World Karting Championship before following it up with the CIK-FIA KF World Championship, in so doing becoming the third youngest person in history to do so.
He stepped up to cars at the age of 15 in the 2014 Ginetta Junior Championship, finishing third overall and securing the Rookie Cup, leading to his full single-seater MSA Formula series (British F4) with Carlin which he’d go on to dominate with eight wins and 15 podiums.
He also supplemented his experience with outings in the equivalent German and Italian F4 Championships, claiming six podiums from eight starts in the former, as well as claiming a top three result in the latter. He followed this up with title glory in the 2016 Toyota Racing Series based out of New Zealand during the European winter months.
Moving onto the Formula Renault Eurocup, Norris’ rapid rise towards the top saw no signs of abating as he wrapped up the title in his rookie year with Josef Kaufmann Racing, comfortably defeating closest rival Dorian Boccolacci by 53 points with five wins from 15 races.
F3
Having taken in a selection of BRDC British F3 Championship rounds in 2016 - winning four of the eleven races he started - Norris stepped up to the category fully in 2017 with a drive in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship under the stewardship of Carlin.
By this stage Norris’ quick ascent through the junior ranks - coupled with his McLaren association and tongue-in-cheek approach to promoting his brand via social media - had identified him as motorsport’s ‘next big thing’, a status that brought gravitas but with it a certain amount of pressure on young shoulders.
Nevertheless, Norris took it all in his stride during his first season of European F3 competition, winning on his debut at Silverstone and following it up with more noteworthy results in Monza, Pau and the Hungaroring.
Firmly establishing him as a title contender with the more experienced Maximilian Gunther (runner-up the previous year) and Joel Eriksson, Norris hit his stride midway through the year with seven wins from eleven races effectively putting him out of reach before the year was up. He’d win the title by 53 points.
F2
While the likes of Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll had each achieved their respective routes to F1 via F3 directly, Norris teamed up with Carlin again for an assault on the 2018 FIA F2 Championship.
He started as he meant to go on with victory from pole position in his first start at Bahrain, though this would prove to be his one and only victory all year as he developed his title tilt on the strength of unwavering consistency.
Going head-to-head with fellow Briton George Russell - a Mercedes junior - for the title, his rival was a more prolific race winner on more familiar circuits as Norris tallied up the podiums, nine in total. It wasn’t good enough to stop Russell from romping to the title, but the runner-up spot was still enough to earn him his big F1 break the following season.
Lando Norris F1 Career - Year-by-Year (2018 - Present)
| Lando Norris 2019 F1 Results Overview | ||
| McLaren F1 Team - MCL34 Renault | ||
| - | Races | 21 |
| - | Wins | 0 |
| - | Podiums | 0 |
| - | Pole Positions | 0 |
| - | Best Finish | 6th (Bahrain GP, Austrian GP) |
| - | 2019 F1 Points | 49 Points |
| - | 2019 F1 Championship Standing | 11th |
With McLaren’s plans for Norris made clear mid-way through 2018 when it invited him to participate in the mid-season F1 test, as well as seven FP1 outings in place of an out-of-favour Stoffel Vandoorne, he was duly announced as replacing the Belgian for the 2019 F1 season.
Though McLaren had been suffering in a period of decline for some years, a status sharpened by its troublesome relationship with incoming engine suppliers Honda, Norris’ appointment along with Carlos Sainz replacing Fernando Alonso was seen as the beginning of a new, more youth orientated era for the team.
The relatively modest expectations proved a bonus for Norris as he quickly cemented his status as a burgeoning talent alongside his experienced team-mate, notching up a top six finish during his second start in Bahrain, a result he repeated in Austria. A regular points-scorer, Norris was notable for his consistency (especially in the second-half of the year) and relatively few errors.
As such, though he’d end the year 11th in the standings with 49 points - 46 points less than Sainz up in sixth overall - he was noted for having out-qualified the Spaniard 11 to 10 over the course of the year.
| Lando Norris 2020 F1 Results Overview | ||
| McLaren F1 Team - MCL35 Renault | ||
| - | Races | 17 |
| - | Wins | 0 |
| - | Podiums | 1 |
| - | Pole Positions | 0 |
| - | Best Finish | 3rd (Austrian GP) |
| - | 2020 F1 Points | 97 Points |
| - | 2020 F1 Championship Standing | 9th |
Keen to avoid the perceived ‘second-year slump’, Norris duly put those fears to bed with a superb effort in the 2020 F1 season-opening Austrian Grand Prix that delivered a stunning maiden podium in remarkable circumstances.
Beginning the final lap having just worked his way up to fourth place, Norris had a sniff of a podium due to Lewis Hamilton up ahead being levied with a five-second post-race penalty. With the margin between them almost exactly that, it seemed unlikely Norris would out-pace Hamilton in the dominant Mercedes on the final revolution, but the Briton dug deep to set a new fastest lap that would see him cross the line 4.802secs off, thus promoting him to third place.
With McLaren making a step in performance over the winter - in tandem with Renault and Racing Point - Norris found himself embroiled in an entertainingly tight fight for third in the constructors’ championship, which he assisted with a series of eye-catching results, including top fives in Styria, Silverstone and Monza.
Though his form tailed off with a trio of inopportune non-scores mid-season, a flourish of good results in the final rounds - a fourth in Bahrain and fifth in Abu Dhabi - lifted him to ninth overall and enabled McLaren to hold off Racing Point for third in the constructors’ reckoning.
| lando Norris 2021 F1 Results Overview | ||
| McLaren F1 Team - MCL35m mercedes | ||
| - | Races | 22 |
| - | Wins | 0 |
| - | Podiums | 4 |
| - | Pole Positions | 0 |
| - | Best Finish | 2nd (Italian GP) |
| - | 2021 F1 Points | 160 Points |
| - | 2021 F1 Championship Standing | 6th |
We saw the very best of Norris in 2021 as he firmly established himself as one of F1's star drivers.
The British driver sat third in the championship for the majority of the first half of the season ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Sergio Perez with podiums at Imola, Monaco and Austria.
Norris couldn't sustain third as he ultimately dropped to sixth behind former teammate Sainz as a combination of bad luck for McLaren and Ferrari's improved power unit in the second half of the season gave it the edge.
As Ricciardo struggled with the McLaren MCL35M, Norris flourished as he completely out-performed his highly-rated teammate.
Given the car in 2022, Norris will be right there.
Lando Norris Fun Facts
Norris had become known for his witty self-deprecating approach to social media long before he made the step to F1, a personality he developed in F1 to become known as the sport’s unofficial ‘meme lord’
He also goes against the grain of drivers that often identify the likes of Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda and James Hunt as their inspirations by citing Valentino Rossi as his idol
This is demonstrated by a helmet inspired by the Italian motorcycling legend and now iconic ‘The Doctor’ sunhat he regularly wears in the paddock and on Twitch streams
He is a regular in esports competitions and live streams, often challenging close friends and rivals Alex Albon and George Russell (the top three from the 2018 F2 Championship)
He raised $12,000 for a COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund (WHO) during an online event on Twitch
Prior to his F1 debut, Norris impressed alongside Fernando Alonso in the 24 Hours of Daytona, often lapping quicker than the Spaniard in what was his prototype sportscar debut
