Lando Norris

Lando Norris ( ; born 13 November 1999) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for McLaren. Norris won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2025 with McLaren, and has won 11 Grands Prix across seven seasons.

Born in Bristol and raised in Glastonbury to an English father and Belgian mother, Norris began competitive kart racing aged eight. After a successful karting career—culminating in his victory at the senior World Championship in 2014—Norris graduated to junior formulae. He won his first title at the 2015 MSA Formula Championship with Carlin. He then won the Toyota Racing Series, Formula Renault Eurocup, and Formula Renault NEC in 2016, receiving the Autosport BRDC Award that year. Norris won the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2017, and finished runner-up to George Russell in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2018, both with Carlin.

A member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme since 2017, Norris joined McLaren in 2019 to partner Carlos Sainz Jr., making his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix. He achieved his maiden podium finish and fastest lap at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix in 2020, before achieving his maiden pole position at the Russian Grand Prix in 2021, amongst several further podiums. Following another podium in 2022, he took seven across his 2023 campaign. In 2024, Norris achieved his maiden win at the Miami Grand Prix, repeating this feat three times as he finished runner-up to Max Verstappen in the World Drivers' Championship. He took seven further victories in 2025, including his home Grand Prix in Britain, as he won his maiden title in a battle with Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri.

As of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Norris has achieved 11 race wins, 16 pole positions, 18 fastest laps, and 44 podiums in Formula One. Norris is contracted to remain at McLaren until at least the end of the 2027 season.

Early life and education

Norris was born on 13 November 1999 in Bristol, England. His father, Adam Norris, is a retired pensions manager who co-owned Hargreaves Lansdown and ranked 610th on the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of £200 million. His mother, Cisca Norris (née Wauman), is from the Flanders region of Belgium and gave him the name "Lando", which Norris has stated was not inspired by Lando Calrissian from Star Wars. He has three siblings—two younger sisters and an older brother, Oliver, who was also involved in karting on a competitive level until 2014. Norris holds both British and Belgian citizenship, and speaks a small amount of Flemish Dutch. In his early childhood, Norris tried horse riding, then quad biking and motorcycle riding before moving into karting after his father took him to watch the national British Karting Championships at age seven. Norris was educated at Millfield School in Street, Somerset with his brother Oliver. He left Millfield in year 10 to concentrate on his racing career without taking his GCSEs, opting to study physics and mathematics with a full-time personal tutor. He cites Valentino Rossi as an inspiration for his racing career.

Junior racing career

Karting (2008–2014)

Norris started his racing career at the age of eight when he claimed pole position at his first national event. In 2013, Norris competed in KF-Junior class, winning the CIK-FIA European Championship and the CIK-FIA International Super Cup, as well as the WSK Euro Series. The following year he won the CIK-FIA World Championship in KF class with Ricky Flynn Motorsport, making him the youngest karting world champion in that category.

Ginetta Junior (2014)

In 2014, Norris made his car racing debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship, a support series to the British Touring Car Championship. He finished third in the championship, winning four races and claiming the Rookie Cup.

Formula 4 (2015)

For 2015, Norris signed with Carlin Motorsport to drive in the newly established MSA Formula Championship (now known as the F4 British Championship). Norris took eight wins, ten pole positions, and fourteen total podiums to win the championship ahead of Ricky Collard and Colton Herta. He also made occasional appearances in the ADAC and Italian Formula 4 championships with Mücke Motorsport where he claimed six podiums from eight starts in the former.

Formula Three / Formula Renault 2.0 (2016–2017)

In January 2016, Norris travelled to New Zealand to compete in the Toyota Racing Series with the M2 Competition team. He achieved six race wins, including the New Zealand Grand Prix, and won the championship ahead of Jehan Daruvala. Norris then returned to Europe to race in the Formula Renault 2.0 category with Josef Kaufmann Racing, competing in both the Eurocup and Northern European Cup. He won both series, taking eleven race wins in total and recording ten consecutive pole positions in the latter. At the same time, Norris embarked on a part-time campaign in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship and claimed four wins in eleven races. In October he made a guest appearance in the final round of the European Formula 3 Championship at the Hockenheimring in preparation for the Macau Grand Prix in November. Norris placed ninth in qualifying in Macau but was eliminated from the qualification race after crashing on the first lap. In the main race, he progressed from 27th on the grid to finish 11th.

Norris raced full-time with Carlin in the 2017 European Formula 3 Championship, and faced competition from Joel Eriksson, Maximilian Günther and Callum Ilott for the championship title. Norris finished on the podium in twenty of the thirty races, including nine wins, and recorded eight pole positions. He clinched the title with two races remaining, marking his fifth racing championship title in four years. In November, Norris made his second appearance at the Macau Grand Prix. He was classified second in qualifying but dropped to seventh in the qualification race. He benefited from an accident between the leaders on the final lap to finish the Grand Prix second behind Dan Ticktum.

FIA Formula 2 (2017–2018)

2017: Debut

The weekend following the Macau Grand Prix, Norris made his FIA Formula 2 debut with Campos Racing, replacing Ralph Boschung for the final round of the 2017 season at the Yas Marina Circuit. Prior to the season, Norris expressed that "[Charles Leclerc] has done it [in 2017] so if I want to beat or prove I'm just as a good [sic] then I'm going to have to win [the title as a rookie]", adding that he did not think there was "any point in going for second or third".

2018: Runner-up to Russell

Norris competed full-time in the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship, racing alongside Sérgio Sette Câmara at Carlin. Norris won the opening race at the Bahrain International Circuit from pole position, however, this would prove to be his only race victory of the season. He scored consistent points and podium finishes to hold the lead of the championship until the sixth round at the Red Bull Ring, when George Russell passed him in the standings. Norris retired from both races at the eleventh round at Sochi Autodrom, ruling him out of championship contention and dropping him to third place in the standings behind Alex Albon, although he recovered to second place after the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Formula One career

In February 2017, Norris joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme. Following the announcement, Zak Brown said that Norris was "a fabulous prospect" who deserved the award. Later that year, Norris tested for McLaren in a scheduled mid-season test. He set the second fastest lap in the second day of testing at the Hungaroring. In late 2017, Norris became the official McLaren test and reserve driver for the 2018 season. Norris participated in his first official practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix, recording 26 laps. Norris drove in six further practice sessions during the year.

McLaren (2019–present)

2019: Rookie season

Norris signed for McLaren for the 2019 Formula One World Championship, partnering Carlos Sainz Jr. He qualified eighth on his debut at the Australian Grand Prix and finished the race in twelfth place. He scored his first Formula One points by finishing sixth at the following race, the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Chinese Grand Prix was the first of Norris's retirements that season, after damage from a first lap collision with Daniil Kvyat caused him to retire later in the race. Further retirements came at the Spanish Grand Prix after a collision with Lance Stroll and at the Canadian Grand Prix when a brake fire caused his suspension to fail.