Over the course of his career, there are two longstanding gripes that have regularly been used to discredit the achievements and skillset of Lando Norris, the McLaren driver from Somerset who on Sunday reached the summit of single-seater motorsport and won the Formula One world championship in Abu Dhabi.
The first is his affluent upbringing: his father, self-made entrepreneur Adam, has a net worth estimated at £200m and was ranked 610th in the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List. He founded the company Pensions Direct in 1998 and, when Hargreaves Lansdown acquired the business, he walked away with a stake of around £187m in 2008. He then retired, aged 36, and threw all of his efforts into his son’s karting endeavours.
The second is his mental fragility, which first clearly reared its head in his inaugural F1 championship challenge last season. Thrown into a Max Verstappen-powered storm, Norris flailed in the wind before eventually being blown away by the Dutchman’s indomitable brand of ruthlessness on-track. Norris has acknowledged his shortcomings since; it was the biggest of learning curves.
In both cases, however, Norris has silenced his naysayers. Not with his comments, but in the most efficient way possible: on the leaderboard. And after securing the podium he needed in Abu Dhabi, Norris has become Britain’s 11th Formula 1 world champion – and the first not named Lewis Hamilton since Jenson Button (a fellow Somerset native) in 2009.
Norris finished third behind Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri at the Yas Marina Circuit amid a tense conclusion to the season. It was only two points in the end, but it was enough. Under the most pressurised of situations, Norris has delivered, culminating a journey which started in karting 20 years ago.
His equanimity has formed the basis of his recent successes, which, prior to the damaging disqualification in Las Vegas, included two consecutive wins in Mexico and Brazil. On both occasions, Norris was peculiarly jeered on the podium by the fans in the grandstands and, on both occasions, Norris laughed at the abuse, gleeful at the 25 points in his pocket.
One thing is clear: Norris’s happy-as-larry, baby-faced demeanour should not be mistaken for a lack of killer instinct. The 26-year-old has a thick skin formed over two decades in the cut-and-thrust world of single-seater motorsport.
Sure, the prosperous finances allowed him more testing runs, the best engines and the smoothest route possible up the junior ladder. But in the Norris’s defence, and a statement which cannot be afforded to every driver on the F1 grid, their affluent background has never translated to arrogance or boastfulness. Throughout motorsport circles, you’ll seldom find a person who has a bad word to say about Norris or his father. Money can only get you so far; you still need the top-tier, daredevil racing instincts alongside that, too.
“He was quite quiet,” ex-F1 driver Johnny Herbert tells The Independent, of his first memories of Norris. “But that bubbly Lando Norris has since become a hardened, focused Lando Norris.
HOW THEY FINISHED - F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 423 points
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 421 points
3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 410 points
“There’s always been criticism of him but I think that’s sometimes good – you can use that to your advantage. That’s exactly what he’s been able to do recently.”
Since his first two years in F1, Norris has beaten his teammate in the last four seasons – twice with Daniel Ricciardo and twice with Piastri. Of course, McLaren’s re-emergence at the top of the sport in the last two years has been the fundamental basis for his recent individual tilts. But having fallen 34 points behind Piastri in August, his challenge looked to be fading. Was this his frailties on show once again?
But in Mexico in October, a breakthrough. A supreme pole position – aided by a clever qualifying trick, removing his previous lap times from his wheel dash – has set off a streak which currently stands at four consecutive pole positions. Earlier this season, the Monaco resident revealed he has given up alcohol and social media in an attempt to focus all his efforts on the championship. Despite his calming tones in front of the camera, this means the world to him.
And as Herbert remarks, in recent weeks, he has developed a much-needed hard-heartedness, replacing previous instances of self-criticism with positive remarks in media sessions. His boyish charm, one which made him one of the sport’s most popular drivers in the Drive to Survive era, should no longer be mistaken for a lack of ruthlessness.
“The criticism doesn’t affect Lando [anymore],” Herbert adds. “I think he’s absorbing all that negativity and twisting it around into positive performances. It’s all about how you deal with the pressure thrown on your shoulders and now, he’s dealing with it very well.
“Actually, it probably motivates him more, in many respects, for him to achieve the goal of winning the world championship.”
Nerves were at an all-time high in the Abu Dhabi garage, with Norris’s Belgian mother Cisca present alongside his father Adam. His fate firmly in his own hands, Norris dropped to third but staved off any threat behind to have his moment of glory.
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