Nationality: British
Birthday: 13 November 1999
Current team: McLaren
Previous teams: None
Number: 1 (as defending champion), previously 4
Strengths: Pure speed, racecraft, consistency, wet weather
Weaknesses: Starts, has some wheel-to-wheel timidity, confidence issues
Strongest tracks: Hungary, Mexico, Singapore, Abu Dhabi
Weakest tracks: Canada, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Las Vegas
Statistics
Grand Prix wins: 11
Pole Positions: 16
Fastest laps: 18
Podiums: 44
World Championships: 1
F1 teammate record H2H
Total Q record: 102-50
Total R record: 94-56
| Team mate | Q record | R record |
| Piastri (2023-25) | 48-23 | 47-23 |
| Ricciardo (2021-22) | 35-9 | 31-12 |
| Sainz (2019-20) | 19-18 | 16-21 |
Pre-F1 championship results
2nd in Formula 2 (2018)
Won European F3 (2017)
Won Toyota Racing Series (2016)
Won Formula Renault 2.0 (2016)
Won MSA Formula Championship (2015)
Career analysis
As a teenager, Lando Norris was already seen as a future race star and was signed as a McLaren junior driver in 2017. He fully lived up to expectations in the junior series by winning the European F3 championship and finishing second in F2 (George Russell won).
Promoted to F1 at just 19 years old, Norris replaced Fernando Alonso at McLaren. He was instantly up to speed and performed respectably against his more experienced teammate, Carlos Sainz.
After Sainz was poached by Ferrari, Norris had to face a new teammate: The highly rated Daniel Ricciardo, who had won multiple Grands Prix and just came off an incredible season with Renault. Most pundits predicted that Ricciardo would beat Norris, but the Brit shocked the F1 community by outperforming Ricciardo massively and essentially destroying the Australian’s reputation. Norris took a massive step up in his third season (2020) and has been racing at an incredible level ever since.
It took a while before Norris won his first race, but he finally succeeded at the 2024 Miami GP. There was a bit of safety car luck involved; however, it proved not to be a one-off, as McLaren continued its development and arguably fielded the best car just a month later. Norris ended up taking three additional wins in 2024, delivering some of the most exciting races seen in a long time, plus countless dramatic fights with title rival Max Verstappen.
Norris went on to win the 2025 driver’s title. Some believe it was undeserved, but Norris had quite a bit of bad luck along the way – and still won it. The only concerning thing for the future is that Oscar Piastri has almost caught up to him in terms of speed.
In terms of skillset, Norris is extremely fast over one lap as well as an entire race distance. His driving is supremely precise; he can place the car exactly as it should be in the corners and has an instinct for extracting maximum pace out of the car. With that said, he also likes taking alternative lines on some tracks. At times you’ll see Norris pull off a ‘weird’ qualifying lap where he purposely takes different lines than other drivers, yet still ends up with a good time.
He’s also good with setups and can lead a team. Norris has a high racing IQ, although he lacks general intelligence, as shown frequently in interviews. He’s also strong on most tracks, classic ones as well as street circuits.
Starts have been a major weakness for Norris throughout his F1 career. This was particularly obvious in 2024 as he just couldn’t convert his poles into early leads. But he improved his starts in the latter half of 2025, so at this point, the issue may have been sorted out. Norris occasionally has confidence issues and lacks the wheel-to-wheel bravery that all-time greats such as Senna, Prost and Schumacher had. But in terms of technical speed and qualifying pace, he is actually among the best.
