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 with McLaren, and has won Grands Prix across eight seasons.
Born in Bristol and raised near 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 , and finished runner-up to George Russell in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in , both with Carlin.
A member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme since 2017, Norris joined McLaren in to partner Carlos Sainz Jr., making his Formula One debut at the . He achieved his maiden podium finish and fastest lap at the season-opening in , before achieving his maiden pole position at the in , amongst several further podiums. Following another podium in , he took seven across his campaign. In , Norris achieved his maiden win at the , repeating this feat three times as he finished runner-up to Max Verstappen in the World Drivers' Championship. He took seven further victories in , including his home Grand Prix in Britain, as he won his maiden title in a battle with Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri.
Norris was listed in the 2026 edition of Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He won the Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year in 2026. In the same year, Norris co-founded LN4 Fusion, a junior single-seater racing team. As of the , Norris has achieved race wins, pole positions, fastest laps, and podiums in Formula One. He is contracted to remain at McLaren until at least the end of the 2030 season.
Early life and education Norris was born on 13 November 1999 in Bristol, England and later grew up near Glastonbury on a small farm. His father, Adam Norris, was the managing director of Pensions Direct, the pension arm of Hargreaves Lansdown, which grew into UK's largest retailer of pensions. He is the founder and CEO of the e-scooter company Pure Electric. His mother, Cisca Norris (), is from the Flanders region of Belgium near Sint-Niklaas and gave him the name "Lando". Norris holds both British and Belgian citizenship and speaks a small amount of Dutch. He has three siblings—two younger sisters and an older brother, who was also involved in Kart racing on a competitive level until 2014.
At age three, his mother wanted him to try horse riding, but he heavily disliked it. Norris grew up watching his father play Gran Turismo on the Playstation and started to play when he was four years old, wanting to beat him. Long before he ever watched Formula One, Norris developed a passion for off-road dirt motorsports. First a quad bike at age four, which he drove in the backyard and on the fields. His father secretly sold it shortly after, because he deemed it too dangerous, but told a young Lando that it had been stolen to prevent him from being upset. Norris transitioned to motocross and developed an early fascination with MotoGP. His childhood hero was MotoGP driver Valentino Rossi, who's fluorescent-yellow helmet design would later be an inspiration for Norris' own helmet designs throughout his motorsport career. As a child, he would cut the grass with the family's lawn mower almost every day, desperate to drive anything with an engine. But as Norris was relatively small for his age, he had to put his father's old dumbbells on the seat to reach the minimum weight limit to even start the mower.
Norris started karting at age eight at Clay Pigeon Raceway near Dorchester after his father took him and his older brother Oliver to watch the national British Kart Championships at the same track. Norris' first helmet in karting featured a big sun on each side, honoring Valentino Rossi's iconic sun and moon design. Because Norris was still small in size for his age, he was struggling with remaining in his kart seat while racing. His team found an original solution by putting Velcro on the seat and on the back of his race suit to keep him from moving too much. Having a passion for graphic design, Norris's first job as a young teenager in his karting days was designing and selling custom visor stickers to his racing rivals. Norris was educated at Chew Stoke Church School and later at Millfield School in Street, Somerset. He joined the prep school in year two and moved to the senior school aged 13, before leaving in year 10 at age 16 without taking his GCSEs, opting to study with a personal tutor to concentrate on 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 season at the Yas Marina Circuit. Prior to the season, Norris expressed that "[Charles Leclerc] has done it [in ] so if I want to beat or prove I'm just as a good 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 and finished the race in twelfth place. He scored his first Formula One points by finishing sixth at the following race, the . The 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 after a collision with Lance Stroll and at the when a brake fire caused his suspension to fail.
Norris was on course to finish seventh at the but suffered hydraulic problems late in the race and was eventually classified ninth. This was followed by a sixth-place finish at the , matching his best result. He was forced to start from the back at the due to penalties for exceeding the allowed number of engine components for the season. He later retired from the race after a power failure. At the , he made his way from eleventh up to fifth in the early stages of the race. He maintained this position and was set to record his best career finish but suffered a power failure on his final lap and was classified eleventh.
Three consecutive points finishes followed at the Italian, Singapore and Russian Grands Prix. At the , Norris was running in fifth place before Alex Albon collided with him during an overtake attempt. Norris dropped back after collecting floor damage and eventually finished eleventh. At the next race, the , he had a wheel fitted incorrectly after pitting from seventh place. He spent almost two minutes in the pits as his mechanics resolved the problem but he was eventually withdrawn from the race. He ended the season with three consecutive points finishes.
Norris finished his debut Formula One season eleventh in the drivers' championship with 49 points. Teammate Sainz scored 96 points, however Norris out-qualified Sainz at eleven of the twenty-one races. During his debut year, Norris signed a multi-year contract to stay with McLaren for the 2020 season until .
2020: Maiden podium