9 hours Ago By Sam Cooper
When Lando Norris first entered the F1 paddock, there were few who were rooting against him. For a start, there was the way he looked. Small, not filled out yet and with spots on his face.
All the usual things that come with being a teenager. The 19 years of age listed on his driver information looked like a typo, and he arrived with all the boyish optimism that youth brings. Forever smiling, the prospect of replacing a two-time World Champion at one of the most prestigious teams in the sport did not seem to faze him.
Norris was also one of the most personable drivers on the grid. At a time when Drive to Survive was exploding, he became one of the first athletes – not just in F1 but across sport – to harness the power of Twitch, showing a raw unedited side of himself that his audience clung to. Ask fans back then who their favourite driver was, and the Belgian-born Briton was at the top of many lists.
Six years later though and the knives have never been sharper. Being a fan favourite in a midfield team is easy, but as you rise up the order, the spotlight only gets brighter. Norris has been put under the microscope more than he has ever before, and the personality that once earned him an adoring fanbase is the same one that now has people questioning whether he is truly one of the elite.
In many ways, Norris is a typical F1 driver. Born into a rich family, he lives in Monaco and spent almost every waking minute of his youth karting – moulding him into a perfect candidate to make it onto the F1 grid. That background is not unique; in fact, it is depressingly familiar, but what does differentiate Norris is how critical of himself he is.
Norris will regularly tear into his own performance, perhaps out of fear someone else may do so. The driver himself has admitted he is overly critical, conceding that he may have been a “better driver” with more self-belief but that ultimately “it’s the way I do things.” This self-critical nature, at least in the public domain, is very unsportsmanlike.
Take a look at champions throughout F1 history and there will be a common trait – the inability to admit fault. After hitting the wall in the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna was so assured of his own ability that he was convinced a concrete wall had moved (it had). Michael Schumacher famously said he does not recall ever being wrong, and you count on one hand the number of times Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso have admitted fault.
Then there is the current champion. Max Verstappen is an unapologetic believer in himself, much to the annoyance of any of his rival drivers or fans (and Zak Brown). In many ways, Norris’ approach is one to be admired, he is a mental health advocate and is not pretending to be anyone other than who he is; the only problem is that it seems to have earned him more enemies than friends and has plenty questioning whether he has the elite mentality needed to be a World Champion.
It is not just Norris’ honesty that has rubbed some up the wrong way but also the strange comments he has made. He has been at pains to say the McLaren is not the best car when it quite clearly is, but even more so, there was an odd cooldown room moment between him and Lewis Hamilton that hinted at him feeling the heat. At the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton puffed out his checks and said, “You guys have a fast car”, to which Norris replied, “You had one seven years ago”, making the conversation far more hostile than it needed to be.
But if moments after racing at 200mph can be forgiven by most, some are seeing this behaviour as an example of Norris crumbling under the weight of expectation. Hamilton suggesting they had a quick car seemed to get to Norris who then went overly defensive about it. Becoming a title contender and, to many, the favourite this season has brought its own pressure.
If he was a B-character in Drive to Survive previously, he is now front and centre, sitting in his Monaco home plotting how to take down Verstappen. The five key reasons Lewis Hamilton hasn’t clicked with Ferrari Saudi GP conclusions: Hamilton issues diagnosed as Piastri puts Norris in corner Separated by just a couple of years of age, Verstappen has loomed over Norris like the final boss of a video game for a number of seasons, but now he has a new problem – Oscar Piastri. The Australian is like Max v2.
He is driving the same car with the same expectation but seems utterly unfazed by anything. Radio messages between him and engineer Tom Stallard have the same tone as a conversation down the pub, while Norris and engineer Will Joseph can sometimes sound like the moment in Mission Control during Apollo 13 when part of the ship explodes. If Norris had the beating of Piastri in their first two seasons as team-mates, the pair are now level of Formula 1 wins.
The first triple-header of the season has changed the momentum in the title race. Heading into it, Norris was 10 points clear of Piastri . Now he is 10 points behind.
With 2026 promising to shake up the order once again, you get the sense this is a now-or-never moment for Norris. He could be the next Vettel or the next Webber – a driver who did everything he needed to win or one that ultimately came up short. It is advantage Piastri – now the 25-year-old must show he is more than just youthful optimism and that underneath the public persona of self-doubt, there is a cold-hearted killer.
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