Why Norris is ready for F1 title fight after learning how to be a champion

Lando Norris is in a relaxed mood as he sits in McLaren’s hospitality unit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, discussing the team’s remarkable season.

We are speaking ahead of the final race of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign, and McLaren is yet to wrap up the constructors’ championship. Consequently, there is some nervousness among the squad, but seemingly not with Norris. 

The location is fitting, for Yas Marina was also the scene of his first introduction to the F1 media – back in 2017 when he was interviewed as McLaren’s young driver, while making his debut in the F2 finale with Campos Racing. On that occasion, Norris was reserved, meek and aspiring to reach F1.

On this occasion he is contemplative, astute and aspiring to become an F1 world champion. 

The 2024 season was a year of firsts for Norris – particularly his maiden victory, at the Miami GP – and it heralded a change in mindset in not only for the driver, but also for the team. McLaren evolved from the media-friendly plucky underdogs, whose failings and dithering were often exposed to becoming more ruthless and calculated, running at the front and winning again.

There was the restoration of self-confidence and belief. Norris, meanwhile, was not willing to be overrun by Max Verstappen, standing up to and frequently taking the fight to the reigning world champion, something F1 has been missing since Lewis Hamilton took him to the wire in 2021, aside from Ferrari’s false dawn at the start of the ground-effect era in 2022. 

It is impossible to quantify Norris’s growth both as a driver and an individual over the past 12 months, but there is a noticeable shift in his confidence.

“I have probably learned more this year than I’ve learned in, like, the last three years,” he ponders. “I learned more about how to win races and how to be in a position of fighting for a championship. 

Norris finished a career-best of second in the 2024 F1 drivers' championship, after taking his first four grand prix victories

Photo by: Erik Junius

“It’s true to say I was never neck-and-neck on points with Max, so I never put him under as much pressure as I would have liked, from a championship point of view. People are right when they say that I was not close to him, but it was still a fight, definitely. We put a little bit more pressure on Red Bull, and I was the one who had the chance to put him under that pressure. I’m proud that it was us at McLaren. No one else was doing that. 

“The last few years have been a bit more about learning how to drive the car, how to be on top of a lot of other things, both on and off the track. This year, I’ve learned what I need to be a champion. It’s a different mentality.” 

Norris is still only 25 but a veteran of 128 grands prix, and 2025 will be his seventh season in F1. When he won in Miami last May, unusually, the writers in the press room applauded his success – normally the media enclave is a sterile environment and lacks emotional outpourings, but there was something cathartic about seeing him end his wait for his first F1 win.

"I deal a lot better under pressure than I do without. So, while everyone says it’s a weakness and it’s not what you need, for me it’s the complete opposite" Lando Norris

It came at his 110th attempt, and the relief was understandable after he or the team had squandered a number of other opportunities. Each time he had failed to convert, it was painful to witness Norris process the outcome. He is notoriously hard on himself, seemingly beating himself up for every mistake. 

He says that, while that might make for uncomfortable viewing, it is a process he uses to ensure he learns from his mistakes, almost like he’s punishing himself for the long-term good. “I definitely felt the pressure more in 2024,” he admits.

“I felt it because I knew every session I did, because of how big the points gap was, and that a bad weekend for Max was second or third, I had to execute things close to being perfect. So, one mistake on a quali lap, or a mistake in a race, those kinds of things I would pay the price for immediately. 

Verstappen dominated in early 2024, winning four of the opening five rounds leaving him 52 points ahead of Norris before the Miami GP

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I definitely felt the pressure of that. I was with a good car for the majority of the weekends – it was not every single time, but most of the time, I had an opportunity to be on pole or second or third. I felt like a lot of those opportunities, I made the most of. And for me, as much as I’ve said there’s more pressure, I deal a lot better under pressure than I do without. So, while everyone says it’s a weakness and it’s not what you need, for me it’s the complete opposite. 

“I never perform as well in practice sessions or in test sessions. I perform way better under pressure: qualifying, races, that kind of thing – when it counts. That’s how it’s always been throughout my life. For whatever reason, when it comes down to what’s needing to be done in a qualifying session, I can do it. In the past, I’ve said I feel a lot of the pressure or that I’m nervous. People have the wrong perception. People think it makes it worse but it depends how people use it and, for me, it’s always made me better. 

“That’s the most pressure I have ever had in my whole career and I’ve enjoyed it and I’ve thrived off that feeling. As much as I’m nervous and don’t eat and things like that, I perform better. That’s something I’ve realised and I’m maximising more now than ever.” 

Norris believes that personal development bodes well for this year’s campaign. And not only his progress, but also that of McLaren. The team has now had 18 months of fighting at the front, and during that time it has tried to iron out the operational and strategic mistakes.

There is an altogether more professional approach to the team as it goes head-to-head with Red Bull and Ferrari. 

McLaren will be going all-out to repeat the constructors’ championship it won in 2024 – a year ahead of the target set by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. “It’s 100% good for us that the constructors’ championship came as early as it did,” affirms Norris. “It kind of surprised all of us a little bit, always in a good way. All of these things have been great. We’ve all admitted as a team, we probably were not ready enough to go, ‘Oh, we’re fighting these guys now. We’re fighting smarter people, better drivers, guys who are experienced in all these areas.’ 

McLaren ended its 26-year wait for the F1 constructors' title in 2024 and Norris is now favourite to claim the 2025 drivers' crown

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images

“We were not ready for that as a team. And there’s certainly some things that I’ve admitted to that I was not ready for at the same time. So, it’s a good thing that has happened, and it’s a good thing that mentality changed, otherwise it would be difficult to know how to prepare for 2025.

“We’ve been able to learn about the things we’ve not done well enough, and that has only given us more time to prepare for 2025, so it will have made us a lot stronger as a team, which I’m very happy about. 

“As much as those are tougher times when we have missed an opportunity – there was a lot of those ‘should have, would have, could have’ moments. Things like, ‘What if my start was better here or there a couple places?’ I guess we never know but the fact is, it’s made us a lot, lot stronger.” 

"Max put in some incredible drives, such as Brazil. We couldn’t have won the championship – Max hasn’t had a bad result. When we look back on those things and say, ‘If I would have won here…’, it still wasn’t enough" Lando Norris

Norris’s slipping into his glass-half-empty approach is noticeable, but even he admits that, with all the self-scrutiny, he did not really have much of a chance of beating Verstappen to the drivers’ title.

The Dutchman came off the back of a dominant 2023 and, despite all the behind-the-scenes upheaval at Red Bull and the incessant flirtation from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, was able to knuckle down and wrap up his fourth world title at the Las Vegas GP, ending Norris’s hopes of a sensational comeback. 

“If I review things, I don’t think with how well Max has performed, even though he said they’ve got a bad car, they’ve not,” argues Norris. “They just had one that’s not as dominant. Max put in some incredible drives, such as Brazil. We couldn’t have won the championship – Max hasn’t had a bad result. When we look back on those things and say, ‘If I would have won here…’, it still wasn’t enough.” 

Verstappen won the Brazilian GP from 17th on the grid before clinching a fourth straight title at the following race in Las Vegas

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

So, what does Norris make of his likeliest title rival? The two had a close friendship in the past, started through a mutual love of gaming, but there were incidents in 2024 that put a strain on that relationship – most notably when they clashed in the Austrian GP, leaving Norris fuming, while there were other flashpoints at Austin and in Mexico City. 

After running Verstappen close at times, Norris has used the experience of being in his dirty air, so to speak, to assess his weaknesses, which he will look to exploit this season. 

“I mean, you’re always looking [for a weakness],” he states. “That’s not something everyone does, but I definitely think it’s within any decent driver. They try to utilise any opportunity wherever it is, whether it’s on the car, on track, or within the person that they’re racing against, or even the team around them. Smart drivers, they will look into those strengths and weaknesses of people. Know when they perform well, when they perform badly, what provokes them a little bit, those kind of things.  

“In some ways, thankfully, the media is almost the biggest giveaway of all of these things. That’s why sometimes maybe I am too honest with things I say because people learn too much about it. But I’d rather that than lie and not be myself, like a lot of people. So, I don’t regret any of those things or the things that I say. It’s a high level, but you have to perform at it – it’s not just driving a car quickly. 

“Driving the car fast is almost the easiest part. It’s the mental side of everything; how much risk you take here, how much risk you take there. When is it better to settle for second instead of fighting for first? Is it better to give one more metre than one less? There are a lot of different things that add up over a season. It can be one point here, four points there and over a season it’s 30 points or something, they all add up.” 

During the off-season, Norris has used time to focus on his other business activities. His business portfolio is still slim, but one area is his Quadrant fashion range. Consisting of mainly hoodies and jogging bottoms, the affordable lifestyle brand will undergo a revamp.

“The Quadrant stuff is still going well,” he enthuses, “and we’re doing a big rebrand. So that’s probably the thing I’m most excited for. We’re taking quite a big step up and we are expanding. I love gaming, but I have slowly drifted away from that. 

Norris has previously been a keen sim racer

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“There are some more things off track, getting to meet amazing people and different sports people that creates interest in other areas. Whether it’s simply just going to different things...I’m not a guy who goes to many events, so it’s about using the doors that are open.

"I probably realise more and more that going and exploring a bit more and meeting new people and experiencing different things is something I’ve started to enjoy more. So just making use of that and not taking advantage, but experiencing more in my life.”  

It’s a nice way to end the interview and rather aptly sums up his outlook on 2025 by taking a fresh perspective. There is plenty of excitement on the horizon for Norris and McLaren, and he leaves no doubt that he is now ready to mount a serious bid to become an F1 world champion. 

This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the February 2025 issue and subscribe today. 

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Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images