Lando Norris reveals Sebastian Vettel support over texts: “He’s always helping me”

Lando Norris has revealed that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has played an important role in supporting him in his pursuit of a maiden F1 title.

After four rounds in 2025, Norris leads the F1 drivers’ standings by three points ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

However, by his own admission, it’s been a tricky start for Norris.

Norris has struggled to adapt to the handling of this year’s McLaren.

While he leads the standings, Piastri has won two of the opening four races.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was Norris’ most disappointing performance yet.

He qualified sixth and endured a scrappy race, ultimately finishing third behind George Russell.

During his struggles, Norris has been unusually open about how difficult it has been, leading to some questions that perhaps the McLaren driver is too honest with the public.

Ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP, Vettel defended Norris for his honesty, labelling the Briton as a “real role model”.

When asked about Vettel’s comments on Thursday in Jeddah, Norris said: “I saw what Seb said. Me and Seb talk every now and again. He texts me. Always in times when I probably need it the most.

“I really love Seb. He’s always helping me and texting me and sending me little notes that I appreciate a lot. Especially from someone like him. I think it definitely means something.” 

Norris ‘working hard’ to understand McLaren troubles

Norris hopes he finds a step in performance in Saudi Arabia this weekend.

Historically, this has been a weaker track for him relative to Piastri, who outperformed him in 2023 and 2024.

“It’s stuff that me and the team are working hard on to try and understand,” Norris explained.

“It’s clear that there are things have changed from last year when I was feeling very comfortable. That’s not allowing me to do as good as a job this year.

“It’s not like I’ve been doing a bad job but I am definitely not able to be at the level that I should be and know I can be or want to be.

“Working hard to address them. I’ve worked hard to try and understand them myself.”