As Lando Norris cruised across the finish line to his maiden Silverstone victory, his mind wandered back to his six-year-old self, stacking go-karts into his dad’s trailer, not even considering a career in Formula One as a possibility.
Childhood memories and karting beginnings
Amid the chaos of a wet and wild 2025 British Grand Prix, Norris produced a coming-of-age performance that would ultimately propel him on to becoming world champion. But as he looked to the stands, he could not help but be reduced back to the kid who, in 2007, sat in front of the television and watched a then-rookie Lewis Hamilton take his first-ever F1 pole position on home soil.
“I remember the very first days when my dad and I put the go-karts in the trailer, and we would go to the local car track and just drive around,” Norris tells Standard Sport. “I started racing because I just love to drive, not because I knew of Formula One. When I started karting, I just loved to do karting. I didn't like Formula One. I didn't want to be in Formula One. I didn't even know what Formula One was. So the fact that all of it kind of turned around and ended up in Formula One is a beautiful thing. But before that point, I was just a kid enjoying driving a go-kart and being very free on the track.”
A slow start to racing success
Norris is refreshingly candid. His love for Formula One and the supporters that “make it exciting” is sincere. Yet his deep-felt affection for the sport has grown organically over time. “For the first three, four years of my karting career, I think I won one race,” he says. “So it wasn't like since I stepped in a car, I was good, and I knew what to do. It was quite the opposite for the first three to four years. I didn't win anything. I won one single race, and it wasn't until a little bit later in my career, when I started to go into bigger formulas or bigger go-karts in 2013, 2014, 2015, that I actually started to be competitive and started to realise that Formula One was a potential career.”
Emotional Silverstone victory
Privately educated at Millfield School in Somerset, Norris’ rise to stardom is not a hard-luck story, yet it remains deeply endearing. He beams with pride when recounting his memories of last July, when he became just the second Brit this century to win at Silverstone. “On the final lap, I was really just trying to look at the grandstands,” he says. “See all the fans and really try and take it all in because the fans are the people that just make it exciting. The fans are what makes F1 special... it wouldn’t be the same without them. Even though you can't hear them when you're in the car, and the engine's on, they're still the thing that makes it special. It really wouldn't be (the same) without them. So, imagine doing a home race, like during Covid, when there was no one there, it would just be like another boring race to win. Whereas this makes it the coolest feeling in the world. You never know how many opportunities you get in Formula One to kind of relive those moments. It was so beautiful and something I'll really remember forever.”
World championship triumph
Having achieved a hard-fought victory at the British Grand Prix this time last year, Norris’ title ambitions faltered before an impeccable final third of the season saw him overcome a 34-point deficit to win the Drivers’ Championship. The culmination of 20 years of hard work, from the Clay Pigeon Raceway in Dorchester to the sands of Abu Dhabi, Norris describes lifting the title as the “perfect picture” in a season of huge personal growth. “Coming around the last corner and coming over the line, seeing all the papaya on the fence,” he recalls. “That's the one perfect picture that I have. That is like that picture you want to frame and just keep forever, because I can see it so clearly. The whole last lap, I kind of relived a lot of moments. I remember seeing my mum on TV. It's quite a chill lap, no curbs, nothing. But going around the last corner, that picture of seeing the chequered flag, the fireworks start to go off. That's the moment it hits you.”
All-British podiums and rivalries
There was an all-British podium for the first time since 1968 in Barcelona last month as Lewis Hamilton, 41, became the oldest race winner since Jack Brabham in 1970. George Russell finished second, while Norris took third on a historic day for British drivers at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. On the trio’s relationship, Norris does not stretch to say they are the best of friends - the single-mindedness of F1 simply does not allow for it - but he admits there remains a level of respect and camaraderie. “In the end, you're fighting for yourself as a driver, and you've got to be selfish. You're not here to help other people,” Norris says of Russell, whom he grew up with, and Hamilton, an idol from childhood. “You have to kind of learn how to work between these lines. But I've always got on pretty well with both Lewis and George. George, I grew up with a bit more. So I am good friends with him and then [Oliver] Bearman, too. Lewis was a guy I saw on TV when I was a kid. So I think it's cool, like Barcelona last time out, that I got to stand on the podium and Lewis was on the top step. I got to kind of relive that vision of when I was watching TV and saw Lewis on the top step 20 years ago. And now 20 years later, I'm also there and with George as well. The two drivers that want to follow in the footsteps of Lewis, like that's just a pretty cool moment.”
Norris was speaking to Standard Sport at an event hosted by McLaren Racing and Google Gemini to unveil their heritage-inspired livery for the British Grand Prix. Fans will have the opportunity to explore the livery up close at McLaren Racing and Gemini’s joint activation at the Truman Brewery in East London. The Gemini Paddock, a multi-day fan experience, is free to the public and open for the duration of the British Grand Prix weekend.
