McLaren’s Lando Norris on Emilia Romagna GP, His Many Passions and More

In the latest Fuel For Thought, the 22-year-old discusses his own a karting team, gaming and founding his own esports team.

Lando Norris is a name that catches a fan’s eye. 

No, he was not named after Star Wars’ Lando Calrissian; however, the British star’s talent on the grid matches the rebel’s fighting spirit. Norris enters his fourth full-time season in Formula One with five podium finishes (four that came in 2021) and a single pole. 

His first F1 win still evades him, but Norris is set to be in the sport (and with McLaren) for the long haul. In February, he put pen to paper and committed to a new four-year deal with the team that runs through 2025 and features “no get-outs” for either side. 

It has been a rocky start to the season for McLaren as a whole, as they dealt with braking issues early on during preseason testing. Norris, though, continued to gradually climb the ranks until he and teammate Daniel Ricciardo scored double points in Australia, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. 

For Norris, he says that track felt like 2019, his first race in Formula One. He says, “It felt like that again, and it hasn’t felt like that for quite a while.” Part of that was due to the massive number of fans—more than 400,000 spectators entered the park over the four-day stretch, per ESPN. 

And while he signed loads of autographs, Norris’s following likely expands beyond the Formula One grid. He launched his own karting team, LN Racing Kart, after collaborating with the OTK Kart Group. The British star became the youngest World Karting Champion when he snagged the title in 2014, and now he wants to help the next generation achieve their dreams. 

Norris is also a huge gamer, creating his own esports team: Quadrant. As described on its website, it is “a gaming and lifestyle brand that combines Lando’s love for gaming, lifestyle, content and apparel.”

As F1 prepares to race in Imola, Italy, Sports Illustrated talked to the British driver about the upcoming Grand Prix, his variety of passions and what questions he wishes people would ask him.  

IMAGO / PanoramiC

Fuel for Thought is Sports Illustrated’s exclusive Q&A with Formula One’s biggest names. The following questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sports Illustrated: What stood out to you about the Australian Grand Prix that didn't make the headlines, whether it's about you or about another driver that you think did well but might not have podiumed?

Lando Norris: I think the first thing is just the amount of fans that were there, particularly McLaren fans, a lot of orange hats, so that was lovely. It felt like what Formula One should feel like. It was very special.

SI: Looking ahead to this weekend, what part of the track would you say is the most challenging? What should fans be watching for?

LN: The weather is gonna make it very interesting because there’s not a lot of runoff in some of the corners. There’s a lot of gravel around so when you make a mistake, we’ll see people pay the price quite a bit. And I think we already saw that a few years ago, last year in fact. There are a lot of crashes, quite a bit of contact, and so on because it’s quite a narrow track. So when you have the rain, the spray, slippery surface, all of this kind of plays into making into very difficult track and technical.

One of the toughest parts, I would say, is you have a very tight chicane where you could use a lot of the curb, risk getting the car damaged, and so on. But you can gain some lap time. Or you’d be safe and don’t use the curb and maybe lose a little lap time. So that’s probably one of the trickier things. You got some very fast corners, Turn 1, Turn 2. Easy to make mistakes; easy to run wide. I think the weather is going to make just the whole thing very tricky.

SI: Do you find that with the weather, while still staying competitive, you give a little bit more space even though it’s a narrow track?

LN: You try to, but it doesn’t always end up that way because I think one thing, it’s always impossible to describe to viewers and people who don’t drive the cars is how terrible the visibility is when you’re racing in the rain. You pretty much see literally nothing. And it’s so hard to describe to someone how difficult these moments are when you’re literally going 300 kilometers an hour and you only see five, 10 meters ahead of you. Because by the time you see that 10 meters ahead of you, you don’t have time to react.

People don’t realize the kind of risks in these moments. And a lot of the time, just pray for the best. You have all this spray [on your visor] and the visibility is so terrible, half the time you’re literally just praying that there’s nothing in front of you. There’s not a car in front of you, there’s not a guy spun, there’s not a crash because you’ll be hitting it and you’ll be having a big accident.

SI: How do you not panic?

LN: I wouldn’t say I freak out because you kind of get used to it. But it’s scary in a way because you literally just have no idea. And therefore you have to have your best estimate of All right, I just don’t think there’s gonna be a car here. I’m gonna stay flat out. And then maybe see one thing in the corner like, Oh, that’s the curb, I kind of maybe need to start breaking out, and then you go from there. Your heart rate’s definitely going a lot quicker in these moments than when it’s dry. I would say my heart rate feels like it’s almost doubled or tripled sometimes when you’re in these moments.

SI: We talk a lot about race strategy when preparing for each weekend. What does this look like for you, or at least as detailed as you can discuss without compromising your competitive advantage?

LN: I think that the main point you’ve got to work out is how easy it is to overtake. That can be one big thing. Is it like a track like Monaco, where it’s basically impossible to overtake? Or is it a race track like we’ve seen over the past few weekends, where you can have great racing, you can start last and you can almost have an opportunity to win because there’s so much overtaking and so many opportunities. That’s number one.

Number two is the tires that you have and the track that you have. How well do the tires perform? And you have to understand all the different types of tires—the soft, medium and hard sets. Is a soft much quicker, is it not much quicker? Does it just degrade much faster? And you’ve got to work these out for all of the tires and pick out what’s the best qualifying tire, what’s the best race tire, and what’s the best over 50, 60 laps, whatever the race distance is. You’ve got to anticipate the weather. That’s something which is also important. You’ve got to know what’s coming your way and be ready for these different scenarios.

And you’ve got to work out all of these things so when you go into Sunday, you know how to react to every situation possible. So if you have a great start and you get ahead, what’s the plan of attack from then on? You’d go to a two-stop [or] do a one-stop. Can you overtake the guys ahead? Do you need to save the tires? And every time something new arises, you got to then choose the next best option. Is it better to push now to save now, and so on? So every single lap, you’re reacting and you’re making decisions.

IMAGO / PanoramiC

SI: Who is Lando Norris?

LN: Oh, who is Lando Norris? Who am I? I think I’m a very down-to-earth person who wants to enjoy their life. So smiles and jokes around a bit, but wants nothing more than to succeed in his job of trying to become one of the best racing drivers in the world. And make a team happy, you know, and be part of the team spirit of all of that. Do it with McLaren and do it with a team that I love. And then also a fan favorite. I put a lot of time into making my fans happy, my supporters and followers. I think that’s it. And, just a nice guy.

SI: You wear a lot of different hats, so to speak because you’re not just a Formula One driver. Can you talk a little bit about that because you are doing a lot for a young twentysomething? 

LN: I have a lot of passions. I guess my main one in life, and since I’ve been a kid is to be a Formula One racing driver and to be a champion. So first and foremost, that’s my goal. With everything I do, that always has priority.

After that, and every driver on the grid has time after that, what else do I enjoy? I enjoy the karting. Growing up in karting as part of racing, I still want to be involved in that. I still do it sometimes during the offseason and during the winter because it’s physically very tough so it’s good to do. And this way you pick up a lot of your initial skills to be a racing driver. It’s through karting and I loved it, some of the most enjoyable times of your childhood, during the racing and during karting. So, still being involved in that and also being part of helping other kids and other youngsters.

And then there’s also the Quadrant side, my esports team, which I started almost two years ago, close to two years ago. I’m massively into esports and gaming. When I was 3, 4 years old, I started playing against my dad, and I love doing that. I spend a lot of time doing this when I’m at home. And traveling, as well, you have a lot of time to do it. I have a lot of friends that I can play online with. I have a Halo team now, which is one of the first-person shooting games, and my team has just gone into the majors. I think it’s very cool, and it’s just something which represents me in a way. It’s not just the esports team that I have. I have some content creators; I have YouTubers. We do YouTube content. I stream on Twitch some of the time personally to kind of give access to my fans and followers, something more, something extra, I’d say like no other driver does.

Then, I have the apparel side, the merchandise, the clothing side of it all, which is where I get to put what I love into clothing, because I love that side of the fashion. Or just being comfy and cozy at home—I like my clothes and shoes and so on. I’m not an expert in it, but I’m learning.

SI: What is one question you wish people would ask you and how would you answer?

LN: [After much pondering.] I wish people would ask me, Why do people hate you? I do the best I can to make people smile. If they didn’t like me, something’s wrong with them.