Lando Norris

Lando Norris, Formula 1 World Champion. For a good part of 2025, that accolade looked to be far from Norris’s grasp, but after a season-long battle, he saw off team-mate Oscar Piastri, and a late run from Max Verstappen to take his first title in a nail-biting season finale.

It wasn’t straightforward — but then it never has been for Norris in a career that has produced sublime, untouchable performances, along with emotional errors, tough luck and periods of car struggles. The 2025 season was no exception: it had it all, but Norris emerged the victor, with the pace, the resilience and the mental strength to keep fighting when the odds were against him.

Norris’s potential had long been obvious. He started racing in karts and climbed rapidly through the junior categories with success at every level, signing with McLaren as a reserve driver in 2018 and making his Formula 1 debut in 2019, aged 19.

But his first years on the grid were spent wrestling with cars that didn’t have the performance to challenge for victories. When a rare opportunity for victory did present itself, he found himself out of luck.

It wasn’t until mid-2023 that Norris finally had a car worthy of his talent, and the results followed. A series of five podium places in six races in 2023 was followed by a long-awaited debut race win a year later in Miami. And as an upgraded McLaren proved to be the class of the field, Norris secured the team’s constructors’ championship with his fourth victory of the season in Abu Dhabi.

A year later, he’d be on the podium again, now as world champion.

Early racing career

Born on November 13, 1999, Norris began racing karts at the age of seven, and that period of his career culminated in victory in the 2014 KF1 World Championship, a title decided by a one-off race at Essay. He also made his car racing debut that year when competing in Ginetta Juniors – winning four times and finishing third in the standings for HHC Motorsport.

Norris’s path through the junior ranks — and his ability to race in multiple series — was aided by his father’s self-made fortune from the pensions industry. Adam Norris had already retired  by the time his son began racing, and his focus — and wealth — young Lando a head-start, with top-level equipment and plentiful testing sessions.

His junior rivals, however, have pointed out that only Norris’s innate talent and work ethic enabled him to make the most of his opportunities and progress to higher levels.

He began a long association with Carlin in 2015 when he switched to the new MSA Formula single-seater series, which later evolved into British F4. A double victory in the opening weekend at Brands Hatch set the tone and Norris scored another six wins as he beat Ricky Collard to that inaugural title. Occasional outings in other Formula 4 championships delivered further victories in both Britain and Germany.

Toyota Racing Series and Formula Renault 2.0

Keen to race as much as possible, Norris travelled to New Zealand at the start of 2016 to win the Toyota Racing Series. His six victories for M2 Motorsport included the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild and he returned to Europe to dominate Formula Renault 2.0. Norris guided Josef Kaufmann’s Tatuus 2000-Renault to 11 victories as he clinched both the Eurocup and NEC titles. He also won four times during a partial BRDC Formula 3 campaign with Carlin and ended the year by being named as the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner.

FIA Formula 3 Champion

Norris joined McLaren’s junior driver programme as part of his prize, working in the team’s simulator and enjoying an impressive F1 test at the Hungaroring. He raced for Carlin in the 2017 European F3 Championship and confirmed his standing as one of the sport’s leading talents for the future with a championship-winning campaign that belied his rookie status. He recovered from initial poor starts to win nine times and secure the title with two races of the final weekend to spare before finishing second at Macau.

FIA Formula 2 runner-up

Norris went head-to-head with future F1 Brits George Russell and Alexander Albon for the F2 title in 2018. The Carlin driver took the opening win of the season in Bahrain but wouldn’t stand on the top step again throughout the rest of the season.

Eight further podiums cemented his place as one of the top prospects in the series and took the title battle in the latter half of the season, but it was Russell that took the honours as champion ahead of all three driver’s promotion to F1 the following season.

F1 with McLaren

Partnering Carlos Sainz in an all-new line-up at McLaren following the departure of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, Norris had an impressive rookie season, scoring points on 11 occasions. His points alongside the more experienced Sainz moved McLaren to fourth in the constructors’ standings, the team’s highest finish since 2013.

The team went one better in 2020 and Norris took another step forward in performance. On F1’s return following the delay to the season due to Covid-19, Norris scored a maiden podium in Austria, finishing in third position. A final lap charge and fastest lap was enough to edge ahead of Lewis Hamiton who’d collected a time penalty for contact with Albon earlier in the race.

A regular points finisher for the remainder of the season, McLaren ended the year as best of the rest behind Mercedes and Red Bull in the championship in third. For 2021, the highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo arrived as a new team-mate but the young Brit had the measure of his grand prix-wining partner. Norris took a further four podiums during the season and his form was rewarded early in the season with a new multi-year contract extension with the team to tie him down for the next few seasons.