Lando Norris

Lando Norris (born November 13, 1999, Bristol, England) is an English automobile racing driver who made his Formula One (F1) debut with the McLaren Renault (now McLaren) racing team in 2019. He helped McLaren win its first F1 Constructors’ Championship (annual F1 team title) in 26 years during the 2024 season and was instrumental in the team winning the constructors’ title again in 2025. Norris also won his first F1 Drivers’ Championship title in 2025.

Early life and karting career

Norris was born to Adam Norris, a businessman, and Cisca Wauman. He developed an early interest in motorsports and began karting at the age of seven. He won the 2013 Commission Internationale de Karting-Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (CIK-FIA) European KF-Junior Championship (now OK-Junior Championship), a competition for drivers age 12 to 14. In 2014 he broke Lewis Hamilton’s record to become the youngest CIK-FIA KF World Championship winner. Both karting competitions are among the most prestigious in the sport, with several winners eventually moving up to a career in F1.

Feeder Formula career

Norris began his motorcar racing career in 2014 by competing in the Ginetta Junior Championship, one of U.K.’s oldest motorsport competitions for drivers age 14 to 17, and finished in third place. In 2015 he made his open-wheel, single-seater racing debut in the inaugural MSA Formula Championship (now F4 British Championship) and won the drivers’ title. The following year he joined the Formula Renault 2.0 series (a regional racing competition held across Europe), claiming both the Eurocup and Northern European Cup titles in the format. He also won the Toyota Racing Series (now the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship), a Formula Regional single-seater competition held in New Zealand. In October 2016 Norris made his FIA Formula Three (F3) debut in the final round of the series at the Hockenheim racing track in Germany.

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In February 2017 McLaren signed Norris to its young drivers’ program for top racing prospects. That year he became the youngest F3 Drivers’ Championship winner in the competition’s history before making his FIA Formula 2 Championship debut during the last round of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was appointed as the test and reserve driver for the McLaren F1 team in 2018 and finished second in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. He also participated in the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race in Florida alongside former F1 champion Fernando Alonso.

Formula One career

In September 2018 McLaren Renault (now McLaren) announced Norris as one of its two F1 drivers for 2019. He picked the number 4 as his driver number (a unique number between 2 and 99 chosen by F1 racers as an identifier) and made his F1 debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, at age 19. Norris finished 11th in the drivers’ standings in his rookie year. In 2020 he achieved his first F1 podium at the Austrian Grand Prix, becoming the youngest British driver to do so. During the 2021 Russian Grand Prix he narrowly missed out on a maiden F1 race victory. Norris was leading the race in its closing laps when a sudden rain shower forced most of the drivers to make a pit stop for intermediate wet-weather tires, which offered greater grip. Norris remained on dry-weather tires but lost the lead after hitting a wet patch and spinning off the track. He finished the race in seventh place and would have to wait until 2024 for his first Grand Prix win.

In 2022 Norris emerged as McLaren’s primary driver. He regularly outperformed his teammate, Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, and became the senior driver for the team when McLaren replaced Ricciardo with his compatriot Oscar Piastri, who made his F1 debut in 2023.

A long wait for his first win

Norris holds the unenviable record for having the most podium finishes (15) without a win. He secured his first F1 win at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, his 110th race in the format. He won three more races during the season and helped McLaren win its first constructors’ championship (F1 team title) in 26 years. Norris finished second in the drivers’ championship that year, behind Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT (now Red Bull Racing).

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2025 title race

McLaren emerged as the front-runner in the 2025 F1 season, winning five of the first six races. Norris found himself consistently outperformed by teammate Piastri during the early part of the season. However, Norris closed the gap with a series of superior results after the mid-season break. Norris’s intense rivalry with his teammate contributed to McLaren securing the 2025 Constructors’ Championship, its second consecutive title, with 6 of 24 races still left in the season. A string of subpar performances from Norris and Piastri during these 6 races, coupled with a late challenge from reigning champion Verstappen, led to the F1 Drivers’ Championship going down to the wire.

All three drivers were in the hunt to win the championship, with Norris narrowly in the lead, at the final race weekend of the season in Abu Dhabi. Norris finished the race in third place, which was enough to secure his first drivers’ championship despite Verstappen winning the race and Piastri finishing second.

Discover more

Oscar Piastri

List of F1 Champions (Drivers’ and Constructors’)

Max Verstappen

Formula One (F1)