Lando Norris

Lando Norris (born 13 November 1999) is a British and Belgian racing driver currently competing in Formula One with McLaren, racing under the British flag.

After a successful karting career, culminating in his victory at the direct-drive Karting World Championship in 2014, Norris graduated to junior formulae. He won the MSA Formula Championship in 2015, and the Toyota Racing Series, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup in 2016. He also received the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award that year. He subsequently joined the McLaren Young Driver Programme in 2017 and won the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Carlin Motorsport. He was promoted to Formula 2 with Carlin in 2018, finishing runner-up to George Russell.

He was announced as a McLaren driver in 2018, alongside Carlos Sainz Jr., making his Formula One debut in 2019. He achieved his first podium in Formula One at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, his first pole position at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix and his first win at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. Norris is set to remain at McLaren until at least the end of the 2027 season.

Personal life
Lando Norris was born in Bristol, England. His father is a retired pensions manager, and is one of Bristol's wealthiest people as well as the 501st-richest person in the country (as of 2018). His mother Cisca (née Wauman) is from the Flanders region of Belgium. He has three siblings - two younger sisters, and an older brother Oliver, who was also involved in karting on a competitive level until 2014. Norris holds both British and Belgian citizenship, and speaks a small amount of Flemish Dutch. In his early childhood, Norris tried horse riding, then quad biking and motorcycle riding before moving into karting after his father took him to watch the national British Karting Championships at age seven. Norris was educated at Millfield School in Street, Somerset. He left school without taking his GCSEs, but studied physics and mathematics with a full-time personal tutor. His family later moved to Glastonbury to allow him to become a day pupil, and to pursue his racing career, citing Valentino Rossi as an inspiration. At the start of his F1 career he initially resided in Woking near the McLaren team headquarters, but later moved to Monaco in 2022, for financial reasons.

Between August 2021 and September 2022, Norris dated Portuguese model Luisa Oliveira. Norris has stated that he and Oliveira were subject to abuse and death threats from online trolls.

Early career
Norris started his racing career at the age of seven when he claimed pole position at his first national event. In 2013, Norris competed in KF-Junior class, winning the CIK-FIA European Championship and the CIK-FIA International Super Cup, as well as the WSK Euro Series. The following year he won the CIK-FIA World Championship in KF class with Ricky Flynn Motorsport, making him the youngest karting world champion in that category.

In 2014, Norris made his car racing debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship, a support series to the British Touring Car Championship. He finished third in the championship, winning four races and claiming the Rookie Cup. For 2015, Norris signed with Carlin Motorsport to drive in the newly established MSA Formula Championship (now known as the F4 British Championship). Norris took eight wins, ten pole positions, and fourteen total podiums to win the championship ahead of Ricky Collard and Colton Herta. He also made occasional appearances in the ADAC and Italian Formula 4 championships with Mücke Motorsport where he claimed six podiums from eight starts in the former. In January 2016, Norris travelled to New Zealand to compete in the Toyota Racing Series with the M2 Competition team. He achieved six race wins, including the New Zealand Grand Prix, and won the championship ahead of Jehan Daruvala. Norris then returned to Europe to race in the Formula Renault 2.0 category with Josef Kaufmann Racing, competing in both the Eurocup and Northern European Cup. He won both series, taking eleven race wins in total and recording ten consecutive pole positions in the latter. At the same time, Norris embarked on a part-time campaign in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship and claimed four wins in eleven races. In October he made a guest appearance in the final round of the European Formula 3 Championship at the Hockenheimring in preparation for the Macau Grand Prix in November. Norris placed ninth in qualifying in Macau but was eliminated from the qualification race after crashing on the first lap. In the main race, he progressed from 27th on the grid to finish 11th. Norris raced full-time with Carlin in the 2017 European Formula 3 Championship, and faced competition from Joel Eriksson, Maximilian Günther and Callum Ilott for the championship title. Norris finished on the podium in twenty of the thirty races, including nine wins, and recorded eight pole positions. He clinched the title with two races remaining, marking his fifth racing championship title in four years. In November, Norris made his second appearance at the Macau Grand Prix. He was classified second in qualifying but dropped to seventh in the qualification race. He benefited from an accident between the leaders on the final lap to finish the Grand Prix second behind Dan Ticktum. On the following weekend, Norris made his FIA Formula 2 debut with Campos Racing, replacing Ralph Boschung for the final round at Yas Marina Circuit.

Norris competed full-time in the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship, racing alongside Sérgio Sette Câmara at Carlin. Norris won the opening race at the Bahrain International Circuit from pole position, however, this would prove to be his only race victory of the season. He scored consistent points and podium finishes to hold the lead of the championship until the sixth round at the Red Bull Ring, when George Russell passed him in the standings. Norris retired from both races at the eleventh round at Sochi Autodrom, ruling him out of championship contention and dropping him to third place in the standings behind Alex Albon, although he recovered to second place after the final round at Yas Marina Circuit.

Formula One
In February 2017, Norris was signed as a junior driver with McLaren. Following the announcement, Zak Brown said that Norris was "a fabulous prospect" who deserved the award. Later that year, Norris tested for McLaren in a scheduled mid-season test. He set the second fastest lap in the second day of testing at the Hungaroring. In late 2017, Norris became the official McLaren test and reserve driver for the 2018 season. Norris participated in his first official practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix, recording 26 laps. Norris drove in six further practice sessions during the year.

2019


Norris was contracted to drive for McLaren for the 2019 Formula One World Championship, partnering Carlos Sainz Jr. He qualified eighth on his debut at the and finished the race in twelfth place. He scored his first Formula One points by finishing sixth at the following race, the. The was the first of Norris' retirements that season, after damage from a first lap collision with Daniil Kvyat caused him to retire later in the race. Further retirements came at the after a collision with Lance Stroll and at the  when a brake fire caused his suspension to fail.

Norris was on course to finish seventh at the but suffered hydraulic problems late in the race and was eventually classified ninth. This was followed by a sixth-place finish at the, matching his best result. He was forced to start from the back at the due to penalties for exceeding the allowed number of engine components for the season. He later retired from the race after a power failure. At the, he made his way from eleventh up to fifth in the early stages of the race. He maintained this position and was set to record his best career finish but suffered a power failure on his final lap and was classified eleventh.

Three consecutive points finishes followed at the Italian, Singapore and Russian Grands Prix. At the, Norris was running in fifth place before Alex Albon collided with him during an overtake attempt. Norris dropped back after collecting floor damage and eventually finished eleventh. At the next race, the, he had a wheel fitted incorrectly after pitting from seventh place. He spent almost two minutes in the pits as his mechanics resolved the problem but he was eventually withdrawn from the race. He ended the season with three consecutive points finishes.

Norris finished his debut Formula One season eleventh in the drivers' championship with 49 points. Teammate Sainz scored 96 points, however Norris out-qualified Sainz at eleven of the twenty-one races. During his debut year, Norris signed a multi-year contract to stay with McLaren for the 2020 season until.

2020: Maiden podium
At the season-opening, Norris qualified in fourth place but was elevated to third after a grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton, the highest grid position of his career at the time and the highest for McLaren since the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix. In the closing stages of the race, third-placed Hamilton was issued a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Alex Albon. Norris set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap to finish 4.802 seconds behind Hamilton, allowing Norris to claim the first podium finish of his career. This made Norris the third youngest podium-finisher in Formula One history. At the, Norris qualified sixth but was given a three-place grid penalty for overtaking under yellow flags during practice. He passed three cars in the final two laps of the race to finish fifth, in what he described as "one of the best races of [his] career".

Six consecutive points finishes came between the British and Tuscan Grands Prix. Norris collected damage on the opening lap of the and finished the race fifteenth. At the, he retired from sixth place with power unit failure. During the, a collision with Lance Stroll and a puncture resulted in a thirteenth-place finish. Following this, Norris faced criticism over his remarks that Stroll "doesn't seem to learn" and his perceived downplaying of Lewis Hamilton's achievement of most Grand Prix wins, describing it as meaning "nothing to him". Subsequently, Norris apologised for his comments about Stroll and also offered a personal apology to Hamilton, stating that his comments were "careless" and that he "[hadn't] shown the respect I should have to certain people".

At the wet Turkish Grand Prix Norris had what he called "[the] worst start of everyone's career ever". He started from fourteenth place after a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect yellow flags in qualifying, but recovered to finish eighth and recorded the fastest lap of the race. Norris finished fourth at the and fifth at the season-finale,  which alongside the points scored by teammate Sainz, assisted McLaren in claiming third place in the constructors' championship over Racing Point. Norris ended the season ninth in the drivers' championship with 97 points, eight points behind Sainz.

2021: Maiden pole position
Norris remained at McLaren for the season, partnering Daniel Ricciardo as Sainz left the team for Ferrari. Norris qualified seventh for the season-opening and finished the race fourth. At the following race, the, a qualifying time that would have placed him third on the grid was deleted for exceeding track limits, and he started the race seventh. Norris had run in second place before being passed by Lewis Hamilton with three laps remaining. He finished third to claim his second Formula One podium finish. At the, Norris started fifth and benefited from Charles Leclerc's failure to start the race and Valtteri Bottas' retirement to claim another podium finish. Norris was issued a grid penalty and started ninth at the for failing to enter the pits during a red flag period in qualifying, a sanction he criticised as "unfair". He recovered places in the race to finish fifth, assisted by crashes and mistakes from drivers ahead.

Norris equalled his then-highest grid position at the in Austria, starting third after Bottas was issued with a grid penalty. He finished fifth for the third consecutive race. He bettered this qualifying position at the following weekend's, starting in second place after setting a time 0.048 seconds behind pole-sitter Max Verstappen. Norris received a penalty during the race after being judged to have forced Sergio Pérez off the track. He finished the race third to claim his third podium of the season. He set the sixth fastest time in Friday qualifying at the, before finishing fifth in the new-format sprint qualifying and fourth in the Grand Prix. This result moved him up to third place in the drivers' championship. He qualified sixth for the. He improved to third place by the first corner but was hit from behind by Bottas, causing him to collide with Verstappen. Norris retired from the race two laps later due to heavy damage. At the, Norris finished fourth in sprint qualifying, which became third on the grid for the race as Bottas incurred an engine penalty. Norris finished the race second behind teammate Ricciardo, scoring his fourth podium of the season and securing McLaren's first one-two finish since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix.

Norris took his first Formula One pole position in changing weather conditions in qualifying at the. He lost the lead to Carlos Sainz on the first lap before regaining it on lap 13. Norris continued to lead the race with Lewis Hamilton close behind until rain began to fall in the closing laps. Norris decided to stay out on dry-weather tyres while Hamilton pitted for intermediate tyres. The rain soon worsened, allowing Hamilton to overtake and forcing Norris to pit for intermediates. Norris finished seventh, recording the fastest lap of the race. Norris scored points in each of the remaining seven races of the season, but did not finish higher than seventh. He qualified third at the season-ending and was the first of the five cars controversially permitted to unlap themselves on the penultimate lap of the race. He criticised the decision to resume the race on the final lap and described it as being done "for the TV". The result of the final race dropped Norris to sixth in the World Drivers' Championship, 4.5 points behind former teammate Sainz. Nevertheless, Norris achieved his career best result in the standings and scored 160 points to teammate Ricciardo's 115.

2022
In February 2022 Norris signed a contract extension with McLaren that will see him be with team until at least 2025. He completed all three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain after teammate Ricciardo tested positive for COVID-19 and was unable to attend.

Both McLaren drivers qualified and finished outside the top ten at the season-opening. Norris then scored points at the Saudi Arabian and Australian Grands Prix before achieving the team's only podium finish of the season with third place at the. At the new, the safety car was deployed when Norris was involved in a crash with Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri. Despite suffering with tonsillitis, Norris came sixth in the Monaco Grand Prix and secured the fastest lap. He qualified fifteenth at the but recovered in the sprint and the race to finish seventh. He then qualified fourth for the but was unable to keep Lewis Hamilton and the two Red Bulls behind and finished seventh.

Norris started seventeenth at the with a power unit components penalty and failed to score points, finishing twelfth. He started third at the but again lost out to the Red Bulls and finished seventh. His best result since Emilia Romagna came at the where he and Ricciardo finished fourth and fifth respectively, briefly promoting McLaren to fourth place above Alpine in the Constructors' Championship. He scored points in the sprint, but a gearbox failure eliminated him from the points positions in the race. He ended the season with sixth place and the fastest lap at the. He finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship and scored 122 points to Ricciardo's 37.

2023
Norris remained with McLaren for 2023, partnered by rookie Oscar Piastri who replaced Ricciardo. At the first race at Bahrain, both McLaren cars experienced reliability issues. Norris made six pit stops to manage the problem and finished seventeenth and last of the finishing drivers. He was eliminated in the first qualifying session (Q1) for the first time since 2019 at the after hitting the wall. He received damage from debris on the opening lap and again finished seventeenth. The saw McLaren score their first points of the season; Piastri finished eighth and Norris improved from thirteenth at the start to sixth at the finish. Another Q1 knockout at the and contact with Nyck de Vries at the start resulted in another finish outside the points. He qualified third at the but first-lap contact with Lewis Hamilton dropped him to the back. He was demoted from a points finish at the with a penalty for "unsportsmanlike behaviour" after slowing excessively whilst entering the pit lane to create a gap to Piastri ahead.

McLaren brought upgrades to Norris's MCL60 for the ; team principal Andrea Stella commented that "pretty much the entire car" had been redesigned. Norris qualified fourth for the race, third for the sprint and finished fourth in the race. More success came at the where Norris and Piastri qualified second and third respectively, a result Norris described as "insane". He passed Max Verstappen at the first corner and led the race for four laps before Verstappen regained the place. In the later stages of the race, Norris held off Lewis Hamilton to finish second, making him the first McLaren driver to finish on the podium at Silverstone Circuit since Hamilton in 2010. He then qualified third and defended from Sergio Pérez to finish second at the, the first consecutive podiums of his Formula One career. He accidentally broke Verstappen's first place trophy – a handmade Herend worth around $45,000 – during the podium celebrations; the trophy was later replaced. He started second at the but criticised his team's decision not to change tyres during a rain shower; he went on to finish seventh.

Four consecutive podiums began with the, where he held off the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and George Russell and finished less than a second behind race winner Carlos Sainz Jr., his former McLaren teammate. Sainz, who had Norris strategically hold up both Mercedes, praised this "Carlando" moment for allowing him to take the victory; his teammate Charles Leclerc had been passed by Hamilton and Russell, who had boxed for fresher mediums, and was thus unable to hold them up. He qualified third, behind teammate Piastri, at the, but passed him in the race to finish second. He led much of the having qualified second and passed Charles Leclerc at the start, but was ultimately overtaken by Verstappen and Hamilton. Hamilton's post-race disqualification promoted Norris to second place. Norris failed to set a competitive qualifying time at the, starting seventeenth, but recovered to finish the race fifth. At the, he claimed sprint race pole position but was overtaken by Verstappen at the first corner and finished second. He also finished second in the main race, having started sixth and gained four places at the start. His only retirement of the season came at the penultimate round, the. He qualified sixteenth and crashed heavily on the third lap. He was taken to hospital for precautionary checks and was discharged the same day.

Norris scored 205 points in total to Piastri's 97 and placed sixth in the Drivers' Championship, matching his result from 2021. He finished only one point behind fourth place, as Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc tied on 206 points.

2024: Maiden win
Ahead of the 2024 season, Norris signed a new multi-year contract with McLaren. He finished sixth at the first race, the. and took his first podium of the season at the, starting and finishing third. He took the season's first sprint pole at the, but dropped positions on the opening lap of the sprint and finished sixth. For the main race, he qualified fourth, overtook Fernando Alonso and gained on Sergio Pérez in the pits to finish second, his fifteenth Formula One podium. At the, he retired from the sprint after a first-corner collision with Alonso. He qualified fifth for the main race and led the race after the drivers ahead had made pit stops. A subsequent safety car allowed Norris to pit and retain his lead, which he held ahead of Verstappen at the restart to claim his maiden Grand Prix victory after 110 races and with his 16th podium finish, tying the record for the most podiums before taking a first win, a record he now shares with Patrick Depailler, Mika Häkkinen, Eddie Irvine and Jean Alesi.

Endurance racing
It was announced that Norris would join United Autosports in order to race in the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona in the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship alongside two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso, as well as the 2016–17 Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 champion Philip Hanson. Norris and his team finished the race in 13th place in their class and 38th position overall. Following the race, Alonso hailed Norris's "impressive speed", and stated: "The stints he did were very impressive – the teamwork, the preparation, the focus."

Norris competed in the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual with Team Redline in the LMP2 class alongside fellow F1 competitor Max Verstappen and sim-racers Atze Kerkhof and Greger Huttu. Qualifying in 5th place for the race start, the team were met with a series of technical problems on Verstappen's end and were forced to retire overnight as a result of Verstappen crashing. However, due to a red flag being called, their team were allowed to rejoin back into the grid, 18 laps behind and last on the LMP2 grid. In the end, Norris and the team finished 25th in the LMP2 standings and in the overall standings.

Other ventures
Norris raised $12,000 for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in support of the World Health Organization during an online streaming event on Twitch. He also founded Team Quadrant, an esports team which also focuses on content creation and apparel, in 2020. In January 2024, Youtuber Will Lenney (also known by his YouTube psuedonym WillNE) became a co-owner and investor of Team Quadrant.

Subsequent to his Formula One debut in 2019, Norris confirmed that he had struggled with his mental health from the pressures of the sport, turning to the Mind charity for support. Alongside his support of the Mind charity, Norris himself is an advocate for increasing mental health visibility in sports.

In September 2021, Norris launched a kart racing brand known as the LN Racing Kart. The manufacturing is supported by the OTK Kart Group, while operations are carried out by Ricky Flynn Motorsport.

Awards

 * Autosport Awards British Competition Driver of the Year: 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023
 * Lorenzo Bandini Trophy winner: 2023

Racing career summary
As Norris was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.


 * Season still in progress.

Complete Ginetta Junior Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete MSA Formula results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Toyota Racing Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Driver did not finish the race but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. As Norris was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.


 * Season still in progress.