Biography
Lando Norris Biography
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL32 Honda, Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary.
Wednesday 2 August 2017
This British upcoming F1 driver became the youngest ever world karting champion at the age of 14. In 2016 he won the Formula Renault Eurocup and NEC 2.0 title. In 2017 he was given a reward for winning the 2016 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award. The reward was testing a Formula One car in 2017 on the Hungaroring in the week after the grand prix.
He tested the McLaren MCL32 on the 2nd of August 2017 and hugely impressed the world by delivered a fantastic performance at the wheel of the (normally poor performing) McLaren’s MCL32 car to be only 0.261s slower then that day’s fastest man and 4 times F1 champions, Sebastian Vettel.
Norris’ quickest lap was set on ultrasoft tyes, a step softer in Pirelli’s range than the supersofts utilised by Vettel for his fastest time, but even taking the performance difference of the tyres into account, ther 17-year-old’s F1 debut was eye-catching as he posted 91 laps.
Norris now drives the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and holds 2nd place in the drivers championship.
With this performance, he certainly got a lot of attention and the F1 bosses will be knocking on his door for sure. It won't be a question of if, but when will Norris be a (very quick) Formula 1 driver.
On the 4th of September McLaren announced that Lando Norris will replace their current struggling Belgian driver Stoffel Vandoorne for the 2019 F1 season. He started his job on the 27th of November 2018 by testing the 2019 Pirelli tyres on the Yas Marina circuit, 2 days after the last race of the 2018 season on in Abu Dhabi.
2019 season
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL34 at Bahrain (2019)
Lando Norris had a very good start of his first-ever Formula 1 season. In his first race at Melbourne, he qualified 8th. It was a long time since McLaren was allowed to go to Q3 during qualifying. He qualified in front of his much more experienced teammate Carlos Sainz who started on P18. He could not hold his 9th position during the race and had to settle for 12th.
In his second race at Bahrain, he started from P9 and drove a very strong race. He finished in the points for the first time and crossed the finish line as 6th. McLaren's best result before Bahrain was a 5th by Fernando Alonso in Australia a year before.
After his strong outing at Sakhir, he scored points in one o the following five races. Then, he had another good performance in France with 9th place and another 6th position at Austria, where he battled with Lewis Hamilton for third place in the first lap of the race. In Budapest, he added another couple of points to his tally with a 9th-place finish.
The first half of his debut season in F1 was efficient and, despite trailing Sainz by 34 points in the WDC, the British driver showed great speed on Saturdays, beating the Spaniard 8-4 in the first 12 races. The English rookie started the second half with a solid drive in the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, where he occupied the fifth position during the entire race until his engine stopped while starting the final lap of the race.
Austrian F1 GP podium: 1. Bottas, 2. Leclerc, 3. Norris
He scored points in six of the last nine races of the season, putting his tally of points at 49.
He led his surprising teammate Carlos Sainz in qualifying but fell to the Spaniard in terms of points. A solid first year in the campaign should have been even better for Norris which only adds more expectations for what is to come for his career.
Lando Norris had a stellar start to the 2020 F1 season, scoring his first podium in the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix and then finishing in the Top-5 two times in the following three races. However, Norris started to show some inconsistency and only finished once in the Top-5 in the following 10 races.
Despite his tremendous start to the 2020 season and a good advantage over his teammate Sainz, Norris ended the year in ninth place in the World Drivers' Championship with 97 points. He ended the year with a nice run of results, scoring points in each of the last five races and even recording the Fastest Lap of the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.
Great start to the 2021 Formula 1 season, but maiden F1 win evades him
Lando Norris got off to a hot start to the 2021 Formula 1 season, but a solid run of podiums could not net him his first Grand Prix victory.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M front on
Still, Norris had a solid 2021 season with four podiums, a Pole Position and 160 points (sixth in the WDC). He started the year with nine Top-5 finishes in the first 10 races, and scored points in each GP (he had three podiums in that run). The second half of the season looked to be even stronger for Norris and McLaren, but it wasn't that competitive, as Ferrari also took over as the third-best team.
Norris finished second in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo (who was all year behind him, but performed better at Monza). It was McLaren's first victory since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix (Jenson Button), and it was almost followed up by another win, after Norris started on Pole at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, but a late rain and a bad choice from the driver left him with his hands empty, finishing only seventh after leading most of the GP.
Lando Norris in the 2022 F1 season
In the fourth race of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship season, Lando Norris scored the sixth podium of his career. The 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix saw Norris finishing third after a late mistake by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, and it was his second consecutive race with P3 at Imola, after the 2021 edition.
NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - JULY 09: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing, second-placed Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren, and third-placed Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes.
Norris finished the 2022 F1 season in seventh place in the World Drivers' Championship, having scored 122 points. He was the best-positioned racer after the drivers of the Top 3 teams (Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes).
Podium in his home Grand Prix and his best F1 season
Although McLaren started the 2023 F1 season with mighty struggles in the first two rounds, by the time the Austrian Grand Prix arrived (the ninth race of the year), the team managed to give competitive cars to its drivers and Lando Norris gave great use to that performance.
At Austria, Norris finished fourth after a solid race and followed it up with a front-row start in the 2023 British Grand Prix before achieving a great podium with a P2 finish.
The podium at Silverstone was Norris' first in his home race and the seventh of his Formula 1 career.
His eighth podium came fast, as McLaren performed extremely well in the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix and Norris secured another second-place finish behind Max Verstappen.
SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT, CHINA - APRIL 19: Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38 during the Chinese GP at Shanghai International Circuit on Friday April 19, 2024 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Mark Sutton / LAT Images)
Two podiums in the first 11 races of 2023 weren't bad for McLaren and Norris, but the team definitely stepped up and the British driver went on to stay regularly in the podium for the second half of the season. Norris finished second in Singapore and Japan, then grabbed third place in Qatar and again returned to second at Austin for four consecutive podiums.
A crash in Las Vegas was a low point, but Norris secured sixth in the World Drivers' Championship with fifth place at the finale in Abu Dhabi.
2024 Formula 1 season
Seven podiums in a season surpassed Norris' total tally in his previous four F1 seasons, and he also scored a career-best 205 points, just one point shy behind fourth-place finisher Fernando Alonso.
The 2024 Formula 1 season saw McLaren again mixed with the fastest cars on the field. Once more, Norris performed well and achieved two podiums early in the season, finishing third in Australia (third GP of the season) and second in China.
Moreover, Norris had qualified first for the Sprint in China.
Official website: https://landonorris.com
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