Lando Norris

Lando Norris will compete with McLaren for the 2024 F1 season, his sixth year with the Woking outfit. 

Lando Norris F1 Career - (2019 - Present)

With McLaren’s plans for Norris made clear mid-way through 2018 when it invited him to participate in the mid-season F1 test, as well as seven FP1 outings in place of an out-of-favour Stoffel Vandoorne, he was duly announced as replacing the Belgian for the 2019 F1 season. 

Though McLaren had been suffering in a period of decline for some years, a status sharpened by its troublesome relationship with incoming engine suppliers Honda, Norris’ appointment along with Carlos Sainz replacing Fernando Alonso was seen as the beginning of a new, more youth orientated era for the team.

The relatively modest expectations proved a bonus for Norris as he quickly cemented his status as a burgeoning talent alongside his experienced team-mate, notching up a top six finish during his second start in Bahrain, a result he repeated in Austria. A regular points-scorer, Norris was notable for his consistency (especially in the second-half of the year) and relatively few errors.

As such, though he’d end the year 11th in the standings with 49 points - 46 points less than Sainz up in sixth overall - he was noted for having out-qualified the Spaniard 11 to 10 over the course of the year.

Keen to avoid the perceived ‘second-year slump’, Norris duly put those fears to bed with a superb effort in the 2020 F1 season-opening Austrian Grand Prix that delivered a stunning maiden podium in remarkable circumstances.

Beginning the final lap having just worked his way up to fourth place, Norris had a sniff of a podium due to Lewis Hamilton up ahead being levied with a five-second post-race penalty. With the margin between them almost exactly that, it seemed unlikely Norris would out-pace Hamilton in the dominant Mercedes on the final revolution, but the Briton dug deep to set a new fastest lap that would see him cross the line 4.802secs off, thus promoting him to third place.

With McLaren making a step in performance over the winter - in tandem with Renault and Racing Point - Norris found himself embroiled in an entertainingly tight fight for third in the constructors’ championship, which he assisted with a series of eye-catching results, including top fives in Styria, Silverstone and Monza.

Though his form tailed off with a trio of inopportune non-scores mid-season, a flourish of good results in the final rounds - a fourth in Bahrain and fifth in Abu Dhabi - lifted him to ninth overall and enabled McLaren to hold off Racing Point for third in the constructors’ reckoning.

We saw the very best of Norris in 2021 as he firmly established himself as one of F1's star drivers. 

The British driver sat third in the championship for the majority of the first half of the season ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Sergio Perez with podiums at Imola, Monaco and Austria. 

Norris couldn't sustain third as he ultimately dropped to sixth behind former teammate Sainz as a combination of bad luck for McLaren and Ferrari's improved power unit in the second half of the season gave it the edge.

As Ricciardo struggled with the McLaren MCL35M, Norris flourished as he completely out-performed his highly-rated teammate.

Norris continued his fine form into 2022, regularly finishing as 'best of the rest' behind the top three teams - Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. 

He was the only midfield driver to finish on the podium, finishing third at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Norris was again one of the standout drivers of 2023, but he had to wait until mid-season to show his qualities after McLaren endured a terrible start to the year. 

But a stunning mid-season turnaround transformed McLaren's fortunes and enabled the Woking team to at times have the second-fastest car behind Red Bull.

Norris took advantage of this, claiming seven podiums (six of which were second place finishes) on his way to sixth in the championship.