Lando Norris: The Making of a Champion

He is only 25 years-old, but he won the very first Grand Prix of the 2025 F1 season in Australia, and his latest triumph in Mexico City has signaled to many that he is to be the next Drivers’ Championship winner. If that is true, he will follow in the footsteps of a number of British drivers who have previously proven themselves to be the best in the business.

That win in Mexico has made many of the perfect Formula 1 betting sites reevaluate their predictions, after Norris fell away and seemed out of the running after a mechanical failure at the Dutch Grand Prix in August. His teammate, Oscar Piastri, won that race and had looked more likely to take the crown at the end of the year.

There are now just four races left – in São Paulo, Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi – to determine who the 2025 champion will be. Lando Norris currently stands just one point ahead of Oscar Piastri in the standings, so the title race is far from over. Can Norris claim his first Drivers’ Championship though? Here’s how he has transformed into a potential champion.

The road to the most prestigious title in motorsports has been a long one for Lando Norris. He had already tried quad biking and motorcycle riding when he was still very young, but it was after his father took him to watch the British Karting Championships when he was just seven years old that he caught the bug. He began racing the very next year, following his older brother into the sport, and claimed a pole position at his very first national event.

Norris would win titles in various karting categories during his childhood, before moving on to a form of touring car racing and then Formula 4 in 2015. He won a title in his first year at that level and swiftly moved up through the ranks into Formula 3. His continued success saw him progress into FIA Formula 2 in 2017, making his debut in the final race of the season. His obvious talent saw him compete full-time in 2018, while still just a teenager, where he achieved a number of podium finishes.

Norris’ ascendency continued to move at a fast pace, as he became McLaren’s official test and reserve driver for the 2018 F1 season, after joining their driver development program the year before. McLaren was obviously impressed with what they saw in the young driver, and he signed up for the 2019 F1 championship, partnering Carlos Sainz Jr. He was able to win points in just his second race, but his rookie season was beset by mechanical faults and retirements. In the end, he finished the season in 11^th, and although he was behind Sainz Jr. in the rankings, he had out-qualified the Spanish driver in almost half of all the races.

Norris continued to race for McLaren the following year and became the third-youngest podium finisher in F1 history when he finished third at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix. He would podium finish just one more time that year, but he completed the season, almost doubling his points in the Drivers’ Championship and improving on his ranking, finishing in ninth.

The podium finishes and pole positions would continue over the next few years, but it wasn’t until 2024 that Lando Norris finally won his first Grand Prix. He had continued to race for McLaren and had been joined by the rookie, Oscar Piastri, in 2023. His total points scoring had increased as well, with his achievements only just keeping him outside of the top four by the time that first race win came around.

Norris has signed a new multi-year contract with McLaren ahead of the 2024 season, and after qualifying fifth fastest, came through to beat Max Verstappen to the line to claim his maiden Grand Prix victory in Miami. To show just how consistent he had been up until that point, he still shares the record for the most podium finishes before taking a first win in the history of F1. He would win three more races before the end of the season – from a total of 13 podium finishes – including the final Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, to end second behind Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship. His accumulation of points, alongside teammate Oscar Piastri, enabled McLaren to win its first constructors’ title since 1998.

Thanks to the exploits of Norris and Piastri over the last few years, McLaren started the 2025 F1 season as favorites, and after his victory in Australia in the first race, it did seem as though Norris and Piastri would be the ones to beat. With everything changing next year, it finally seemed as though the Max Verstappen era was over and there would be a new champion.

It would be Piastri who would win more races in the early stages of the year, however, with Norris still collecting his usual impressive number of podium finishes to keep him in contention. Three wins out of four in the middle of the campaign seemed to have swung things in Norris’s favor, only for him to fall away so badly in that Dutch Grand Prix. Add to that Verstappen’s resurgence in the last few months, and it did seem as though Norris’ chance of a championship was fading.

All that has changed in the last three races, however, as Norris has achieved podium finishes in Singapore, Austin, and now taken the checkered flag in Mexico City. His performances in the final four races of the 2024 season bode well for the upcoming tests. With Verstappen no longer the dominant driver he once was, Norris has staked a claim to be the new champion. McLaren has already stated that they will get behind whichever driver has the best chance of a title, and, at the moment, it is Lando Norris who holds all the power.