Formula 1 has a new world champion, after the last race of the season, the one today – in Abu Dhabi, won by the Dutchman Max Verstappen, followed by the Australian Oscar Piastri. British Lando Norris finished 3rd. He finished the season with 423 points, two points ahead of Verstappen and 10 ahead of teammate Piastri. McLaren is the constructors’ champion. After four consecutive victories for Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Formula 1 crowned its 35th champion: Lando Norris, 26 years old.
The 1999-born Briton led a dominant McLaren to victory at the end of a difficult season in which he was largely behind his Australian team-mate Oscar Piastri. In the second half of the season, however, Norris managed to close the gap he had initially built up.
He has shown in the last year that he has gained enough maturity to remain focused and alert, even under pressure. This success allows the McLaren team to break the recent dominance of Max and Red Bull: a driver from the Woking team had not won the title since 2008, Lewis Hamilton’s first title.
Born in Bristol, West England, to father Adam, a successful pensions entrepreneur, and mother Cisca, of Belgian descent, young Lando grew up with a passion for motorsports. His first love was MotoGP, in the presence of a great hero, the only one, according to Lando, who accompanied him throughout his life: the Italian Valentino Rossi.
He was also on horseback
Norris grew up experimenting with various sports before landing on go-karting: he started with horse riding, but it wasn’t for him, then moved on to quad bikes, which his father thought were too dangerous, and then to motorcycles. Finally, after being accompanied by his father, Adam, to the British National Karting Championships at the age of 7, he began to experience four-wheel racing on the track.
He debuted in single-seaters in 2014, immediately distinguishing himself from many others: in 2017 he won the European Formula 3 championship, in 2018 he was close to debuting in Formula 2, beaten by George Russell, and in 2019 he immediately advanced to Formula 1 with McLaren. Norris thus brings the British team to a victory in the Drivers’ Championship, a success it had not achieved since 2008, when another Briton, Lewis Hamilton, won his first title with McLaren.
Norris’ passions
The son of a generation of young talent raised on social media and simulators, Norris perfectly represents his era in Formula 1: a big fan of simulated racing, Lando often enjoyed streaming games on Twitch with colleagues and friends, especially in his early years in the big league. This content went viral during the pandemic, bringing Norris unexpected popularity even among non-F1 fans. The practice declined over the years, partly due to the psychological pressure Lando experienced through social media, which over time caused him to distance himself from the online world, even talking about his own difficulties.
Lando and mental health
Along with a handful of other prominent figures in the sport, Norris quickly became a champion of the fight for the right to mental health. Despite his young age, the British athlete began to speak early on about the psychological pressures of the sporting environment and the difficulties he encountered. “It’s not weakness to talk about what makes you feel bad“, he often repeats, with a transparency that aims to encourage many young people to open up about topics long considered taboo, especially in the world of sports. Among other initiatives on this topic, he has for years supported Mind, a British charity dedicated to protecting mental health.
The other side of Norris
Although he has focused heavily on his development on the track in recent seasons and a more solid image, the Briton is still caught between his many passions and his everyday life outside of the sport. He is often seen playing golf, sometimes in the company of friends in the paddock, such as his former team-mate Carlos Sainz, but also working on personal projects such as Quadrant, a brand that combines lifestyle, clothing and e-sports through simulator challenges and online content. In between, there is also a return to the passions that have always fueled his love for motorsport: motorcycles and, of course, Valentino Rossi, to whom he has dedicated special helmets over the years and whom he has met on the track several times, visiting him in MotoGP and welcoming him to Formula 1.
