Lando Norris Formula 1 Driver

Lando Norris is one of the brightest young drivers in Formula One today. His talent and his charismatic personality combine to make him the one of the future faces of Formula 1. He found his way to Formula 1 through the junior formulas, but just like every Formula 1 driver, he had his own unique journey to reach the pinnacle of motor racing. 

When he was young, Norris expressed interest in motorcycle racing, but after his father took him and his brother to a karting championship race, he fell in love with four-wheel racing. At the young age of seven, he took part in his first national karting race, claiming pole position. He continued racing in karts until he won the 2014 World Karting Championship at the young age of fourteen. In 2014, he also took part in his first series in cars. He took part in the Ginetta Junior Championship, finishing third place, winning four races, and finishing on the podium eleven times in the twenty events. He was the highest placed rookie in the series. In 2015, Norris joined Carlin Motorsport, allowing him to compete in the MSA Formula Series. He won the series, taking eight victories in the process. This meant that he won an international racing series before he was old enough to drive on his hometown English roads. He also made appearances in the German and Italian Formula Four Championships. Across the two series, he took seven podiums in seventeen starts, including a victory at Spa-Francorchamps. 

In 2016, Norris signed with M2 Competition, participating in the Toyota Racing Series based in New Zealand. He won the series, winning six of the fifteen races. The field included future F2 drivers Artem Markelov and Guanyu Zhou. He also won the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and NEC series. 

In 2017, he was signed to the McLaren’s junior driver programme. He took part in a test for McLaren at the Hungaroring, setting the second quickest lap time on the second-day, coming less than three-tenths of a second away from Sebastian Vettel, and lapping quicker than Kimi Räikkönen, Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniil Kvyat, Robert Kubica, and Jolyon Palmer among others. 

In the 2017, he also participated in the Formula 3 season, racing for Carlin, in which he won nine races, finished on the podium twenty times, and won the championship at the first race of the final round. After his championship, McLaren announced that he would be the test and reserve driver for their 2018 season.

He made the step up to Formula 2 in 2018,  winning the feature race in debut in Bahrain, leading the championship for much of the first half of the season. He was unable to take another win, but he did finish on the podium nine times over the season, and was within five points of championship leader George Russell after the eighteenth event of the season in Belgium. He eventually finished runner-up behind Russell, and helped Carlin to the Teams Championship, but he was confirmed to be joining McLaren for the 2019 Formula 1 season. Norris participated in the first practice session of the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix, being eighteenth fastest out of the twenty runners, but outperforming Stoffel Vandoorne, the other McLaren driver in the session. 

Norris began his Formula 1 career at the Australian Grand Prix, qualifying an impressive eighth, before finishing twelfth. At the Bahrain Grand Prix, the same place that he won the Formula 2 race, Norris finished sixth, outpacing Kimi Räikkönen and many other to score his first career points. Norris equaled his best result of sixth at the Austrian Grand Prix, and was on course to finish fifth in Belgium before a power failure knocked him out of the points on the final lap. Norris was running fifth at the Japanese Grand Prix before a collision with Alex Albon gave him floor damage, and then while running seventh in Mexico, the McLaren pit crew put a tire on incorrectly, costing Norris another six points. He would eventually finish eleventh in the championship, 47 points behind his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr, but he out qualified him 11-10 over the season. 

Norris will partner Sainz again in 2020, and will then race with Daniel Ricciardo in 2021 as he re-signed with McLaren up to 2022. 

Norris is one of the first Formula 1 drivers to use his social media to show a new side to him. He has nearly 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and streams on Twitch nearly every day. This has allowed Norris to become a household name for racing fans, and has changed how many drivers handle their social media accounts.

Hopefully he continues to have a key role in inviting more Formula 1 fans to have a look inside their beloved sport.