Lando Norris' Journey to Becoming a Formula 1 World Champion

Lando Norris became the 2025 Formula 1 World Champion in Abu Dhabi. Silverstone explores the Brit’s career from karting through to F1. Read more about his journey.

Twenty-four Grands Prix and six Sprint races. One thousand, four hundred and forty-four racing laps. A racing distance of over seven thousand, three hundred and thirteen kilometres. 

Only one World Champion. 

Three title contenders ahead of the final race in 2025 in Abu Dhabi, but only one could bring it home. McLaren versus McLaren versus Red Bull. Norris versus Piastri versus Verstappen. 

After Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen held the title for one thousand, four hundred and fifty-seven consecutive days, his reign was brought to an end.
Great Britain has itself a brand-new leader in Formula 1.

On Sunday 7th December 2025 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, held at the Yas Marina Circuit, McLaren’s Lando Norris became Formula 1 World Champion for the first time in his career. 

A career that has spanned over 15 years, with victories in both open and closed wheel racing categories, Lando Norris has a new accolade to add to his list of achievements. 

After heading into the final race weekend of the 2025 Grand Prix season with a 12-point lead behind four-time World Champion Max Verstappen and a 16-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri, who was also chasing his childhood dream of becoming Champion for the first time, a steady and secure drive saw the Brit cross the line in P3, behind his two closest rivals, to secure the Championship.

From taking his first home win at Silverstone to an ongoing title battle with his rivals until the very end, 2025 has been the year of Lando Norris in Formula 1. 
 

Karting Career: Setting Foundations with Talented Beginnings 

Born in 1999 and hailing from Bristol, Lando Norris’ motorsport career began with two wheels, his racing hero the MotoGP icon, Valentino Rossi. Two wheels soon turned into four, when, at age seven, Lando first set foot into a kart. Alongside his older brother Oliver, he began competing when he was eight. 

Lando’s talent behind the wheel was uncovered pretty quickly, as he took pole position at his first national event. In 2013, Lando took the title of Champion for the first time in his career when he became World Karting (KFI) Champion, then, in the following year, he claimed the CIK-FIA Karting World Championship.

Early Racing Career: Climbing the Ladder 

After a successful time in karts, Lando made the move to car racing by joining the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2014 with HHC Motorsport. A support series for the British Touring Car Championship, Lando won four races on tracks in England and Scotland, starting at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire, Snetterton in Norfolk, Knockhill in Fife and Brands Hatch in Kent. Lando finished third in the Championship and claimed the Rookie Cup. 

In the following year, Lando made the move from closed wheel car racing to open wheel single seater racing, as he joined Carlin Motorsport to compete in the newly established MSA Formula Championship, now known as the British F4 Championship. He secured 10 pole positions, converted eight of them into wins and took 14 podiums in total to win the title ahead of now British GT Champion Ricky Collard and IndyCar race winner Colton Herta. Throughout 2014, Lando also made occasional appearances in both the ADAC Formula 4 and Italian Formula 4 Championships with Mücke Motorsport; in the former category, he took six trips to the podium out of eight starts. 

Heading Down Under in January 2016, Lando competed in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand with the M2 Competition team. He won six out of 15 races, including the New Zealand Grand Prix, and was crowned Champion of the series. On his return to Europe after a month of racing across New Zealand, Lando competed in the Formula Renault 2.0 Championship with Josef Kaufmann Racing, racing in both Eurocup and Northern European Cup. He won the Rookie, Drivers’ and Teams’ titles in both categories, whilst also embarking on a part-time campaign in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, claiming four wins in 11 races. In October 2016, Lando raced in the final round of the European Formula 3 Championship at the Hockenheimring in preparation for the iconic Macau Grand Prix the following month. In Macau, he qualified ninth but was eliminated from the qualifying race after crashing on the first lap, but in the main Grand Prix, he started 27th and stormed through the pack to finish 11th. 

In 2017, Lando joined the Carlin Motorsport team once again for his full-time debut in the European F3 Championship. Another extremely successful year, Lando secured a podium finish in 20 of the 30 races, with nine wins – including one at Silverstone at the very first round of the campaign – and eight pole positions. Lando became Champion with two races remaining, marking his fifth racing Championship title within four years. In November, he returned to Macau, qualifying second but dropping to P7 in the qualifying race. After an incident between the Grand Prix leaders on the final lap, Lando crossed the line in second, marking a successful return to Macau. At the end of 2017, Lando made his FIA Formula 2 debut with Campos Racing when he replaced Ralph Boschung for the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi.

A huge step in the young Brit’s Formula 1 career came in 2017. Lando joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme and tested for the team in a mid-season test at the Hungaroring, setting the fastest lap in the second day of testing. Later that year, Lando was announced as an official member of the McLaren Formula 1 team, taking the role of test and development driver for the 2018 season.

Alongside his F1 duties in 2018 – which included driving in several free practice sessions throughout the season, with his first at the Belgian Grand Prix – Lando made his full-time debut in FIA Formula 2 alongside Sérgio Sette Câmara at Carlin Motorsport. He won the first race in Bahrain from pole position – his only race win of the season – but scored consistent points and podium finishes to maintain the Championship lead until round six in Austria, when George Russell overtook him in the standings. After retiring in Sochi, Lando was officially out of contention for the Championship, falling to P3 behind Alex Albon. However, in the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi, he recovered to second place in the standings.  

Formula 1 Career: The Journey to World Champion 

With an incredibly successful career climbing through the ranks on the junior motorsport ladder to his name, Lando Norris made his debut as a Formula 1 driver for McLaren in 2019 at the Australian Grand Prix. 

2019

Lando’s debut season, alongside teammate Carlos Sainz, saw him score his first points in F1 at only the second race of his career – the Bahrain Grand Prix. He secured his best result of the season in Bahrain, then in Austria later in the year, with P6, and would’ve bettered this result in Belgium, but a power failure on the last lap of the Grand Prix saw Lando classified outside the point-scoring places in P11. Three consecutive points finishes came after the summer break in Italy, Singapore and Russia, before Lando finished the season eleventh in the standings with 49 points. 

2020

2020 was a season affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. When racing finally got underway in Austria, Lando secured his best-ever grid position ahead of the Grand Prix; he qualified P4 but was promoted to P3 after Lewis Hamilton received a grid penalty. Not only was this Lando’s highest qualifying position of his career, but it was McLaren’s best since the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix. The record breaking wasn’t over for Lando yet; during the closing stages of the race on Grand Prix Sunday, Lewis Hamilton was issued with a five-second time penalty. Lando, who was positioned behind him in fourth, set the fastest lap of the race to finish 4.802 seconds behind Hamilton, seeing him claim the first podium finish of his F1 career, making him the third youngest podium-finisher in Formula 1 history at the time. During the remainder of the shortened 2020 season, Lando took six consecutive points finishes between the British and Tuscan Grands Prix and ended the year in P9 in the standings, only eight points behind his teammate.

2021

The 2021 F1 season came with new challenges for Lando, as he was joined by a new teammate in the experienced race winner Daniel Ricciardo. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, only the third race of the season, Lando secured his second career podium when he finished in P3 from P7 on the grid. His third podium came shortly after, at the jewel of the Formula 1 calendar – Monaco – when he finished third. Several races later, at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Lando finished in P2 behind his teammate to score his fourth podium of the year, but also to secure McLaren’s first one-two race finish since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix. 

At the following round in Sochi – at the Russian Grand Prix – Lando claimed his first pole position in changing weather conditions. In the race, he lost the lead temporarily on the first lap, but regained it soon after and held a lead which looked to be enough to take propel him to his first Formula 1 race win. However, in the closing laps of the race, rainy conditions consumed the circuit and Lando decided to stay out on dry-weather tyres, whilst Lewis Hamilton, who was behind him in second, pitted for intermediates. Lando’s fellow Brit passed him on the better suited tyres, which led him to lose his first F1 race win and instead, saw him finish in seventh. Yet, Lando still secured his best career result in terms of the standings, finishing the year in P6 with 160 points. 

2022

In 2022, Lando secured the team’s only podium of the season when he finished third at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. His best result since Imola came much later in the year, when he finished in P4 in Singapore, with Daniel Ricciardo behind him in P5, a result which briefly promoted McLaren to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. The year finished with Lando in seventh, boasting 122 points. 

2023

More change for McLaren came in 2023 when Oscar Piastri joined the team and the Woking-based team had a difficult first half of the season. At the Bahrain Grand Prix – the first race of the season – both cars experienced reliability issues, with Lando making six pit stops to manage the problem and ended the race in P17 and last of the finishing drivers. At the following Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Lando finished seventeenth again after being eliminated in Q1 when he hit the wall and received damage from debris in the first lap of the race. 

His first points of the season came in Australia, when he finished in sixth, but things remained difficult; in Miami, Lando was knocked out of Q1 and made contact with Nyck De Vries in the race leaving him with no points, he qualified P3 at the Spanish Grand Prix but first-lap contact with Lewis Hamilton dropped him to the back of the pack and in Canada, he was demoted from the points after receiving a penalty for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” when slowing excessively in the pit lane to create a gap to Piastri ahead. 

An important change in Lando’s luck arrived in Austria, when an upgrade to the McLaren cars saw him qualify in third for the sprint. Although he finished in P9 on Saturday, the Sunday was better for Lando; he qualified and finished in fourth, kick-starting a new lease of life for the remainder of his season. The success continued into Lando’s home race in Silverstone, when he qualified second and took the lead of the British Grand Prix into turn one to the roar of a home crowd. Lando ended the race in P2 after Max retook the lead, but it marked his first F1 podium at his home race. Then, he went on to secure the first consecutive podiums of his F1 career in Hungary when he qualified P3 and finished P2 in the race. 

Towards the end of the season, Lando took four consecutive podiums, finishing second in Singapore, Japan and Qatar, then finishing third at the United States Grand Prix despite leading the majority of the race. However, after Lewis Hamilton received a penalty, Lando was promoted to P2. The final podium of Lando’s 2023 season came in Brazil with a second-place finish, and he finished the year sixth in the Drivers’ Championship with 205 points compared to Piastri’s 97. This P6, however, actually left Lando only one point behind P4, as Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc were tied on 206 points. 

2024

Lando’s 2024 season began as it was meant to go on, when he took his first trip to the podium at the second race of the year – the Australian Grand Prix – where he started and finished in third. His 15th podium came in China after qualifying fourth but finishing P2. The Miami Grand Prix weekend was a rollercoaster for Lando, retiring from the Sprint after a first-corner collision with Alonso, but qualifying P5 for the main race, which he led after drivers ahead of him made pit stops. A Safety Car deployment allowed Lando to pit and retain his lead, which he held from Verstappen on the restart and saw him claim his maiden Grand Prix victory after 110 races, becoming Britain’s 21st Grand Prix Champion. Lando secured five podiums ahead of the summer break, finishing P2 in Imola, Canada, Spain and Barcelona, and third at Silverstone.

Lando took pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix and initially lost out to Verstappen at the start, but soon reclaimed his place at the front. He extended his lead to 22 seconds come the chequered flag to take his second victory of the year, and McLaren’s first at Zandvoort since Niki Lauda won in 1985. At the Italian Grand Prix, Lando qualified first for the race – the first run of consecutive pole positions in his career, and the first to achieve this since Hamilton in 2012 – but the race ended with Lando in third. 

Finishing in fourth at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix meant that, when his results were combined with teammate Piastri’s, McLaren took the lead of the Constructors’ standings for the first time since 2014. His fifth pole position came in Singapore alongside a new qualifying lap time record at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, then claimed his third win with a dominant on-track display, seeing him take the chequered flag with a 20-second margin over Verstappen. Now in the Championship title fight, Lando won the Sprint in Brazil after Piastri was instructed to swap positions and admitted in Las Vegas that he had not prepared to be in a Championship battle at the beginning of the season. However, after he finished in P6 behind Verstappen, his fight was mathematically over. 

In the Qatar Sprint race, Lando led every lap until he slowed down towards the finish line to hand Piastri the victory, returning the favour from the Brazil Sprint. Ahead of the final race of the 2024 season, Ferrari were only 21 points behind McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship and Lando’s advantage over Charles was just eight points. Lando felt no pressure in Abu Dhabi, taking pole on Saturday and leading the race from start to finish to take his fourth victory of the season and help secure McLaren’s first Constructors’ title since 1998.

2025

McLaren entered the 2025 Formula 1 season as favourites for the title. 

Lando’s campaign got off to a good start, taking pole for the first race of the season in Australia, defending his lead in rainy conditions to win. Lando finished second in the China Sprint, then increased his lead after finishing in P3 in Bahrain. After crashing out in qualifying, Lando managed to recover to P4 from P10, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his lead in the standings, dropping him below his teammate. The battle between Lando and Oscar continued when Lando won the Miami Sprint after passing his teammate due to a late Safety Car pit stop, but finished behind him in the Grand Prix. He finished P2 in Imola before winning the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position, reducing Piastri’s lead to only three points. A collision with Piastri in Canada saw Lando retire from the Grand Prix, leaving him 22 points down in the Championship standings, but he fought back in Austria to cruise to pole by over half a second before holding his teammate off in the Grand Prix to win. 

The 2025 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was a special race for Lando, with his first ever dedicated grandstand taking over Stowe corner. After qualifying in P3, Lando capitalised on a penalty for Piastri to make his way to the front of the field, leading him to win his first ever British Grand Prix in front of an adoring home crowd and a neon-filled Landostand. In Hungary, he claimed the lead from fourth on the grid and won the race to close the gap to Piastri to only nine points. The Dutch Grand Prix looked to be another podium finish for Lando, but an oil leak in the closing laps of the race left him with no choice but to retire, dropping 34 points behind Piastri. Despite a difficult weekend, Lando wasn’t out of the Championship battle just yet. 

In Singapore, Lando finished in P3 despite colliding into his teammate whilst trying to overtake on the final lap. However, his podium finish helped to secure McLaren’s first place in the Constructors’ Championship with six races to go. After the race, Lando was trailing Oscar by 22, with Max Verstappen on his tail, too. A first lap retirement for both Lando and Oscar in the US Sprint race propelled Verstappen closer to the top of the table, but Lando qualified and finished in second in the Grand Prix, bringing the gap to Piastri down to 14 points. In Mexico, after converting pole to a win, Lando retook the Championship lead by one point before adding eight more points to his tally by winning the São Paulo Sprint from pole, then converting a Grand Prix pole to a win in the main race. Verstappen and Piastri finished in P3 and P5 respectively. 

Las Vegas marked Lando’s 150th race start, and a weekend of celebrations soon turned into a nightmare when both McLaren’s were disqualified for excessive plank wear. However, Lando retained his 24-point lead over Piastri and Verstappen with two rounds remaining, but the points margin to Verstappen had more than halved, with the Dutchman and Lando’s teammate tied on points. 
Lando had the chance to win the Championship in Qatar if he outscored Piastri and Verstappen by two points, but he finished P3 behind his teammate in the Sprint and fourth in the Grand Prix, behind both Verstappen and Piastri, to take the Championship fight to the final round of the season. In Abu Dhabi, Lando started in second but was overtaken by his teammate in the early stages of the race, and he battled to maintain position in third – which was all he needed to win. 

58 laps later, the chequered flag fell, and although Verstappen and Piastri crossed the line ahead of him, Lando Norris secured his first-ever Formula 1 World Championship title under the lights in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi marked an emotional end to a Formula 1 season filled with highs and lows for Great Britain’s newest F1 Champion. From watching the title slip away to charging back to the front of the field, Lando Norris was destined to win the Championship from the beginning of the 2025 season. 

Lando will return to Silverstone for his home Grand Prix as World Champion from the 2nd July to 5th July 2026. Be there to cheer the newest Formula 1 Champion on from the best seats in the house. Get your tickets now.