Driver to contender: Lando Norris from 2024 to 2025
- Maham Mir
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
Written by Maham Mir, Edited by Marit Everett
In the space of a year, Lando Norris has gone from battling an unfortunate nickname of Lando 'NoWins' to becoming a true championship contender against his teammate, Oscar Piastri.
For a driver with success at the junior levels, his Formula One career developed quickly even though certain milestones such as race wins took some time to arrive. However, there can be no doubt that since the start of the 2024 season, Norris’ career has reached new heights.
Being promoted from reserve driver to replace Stoffel Vandoorne in 2019, Norris became the youngest ever driver to sign for McLaren, as well as the then-youngest ever British driver to be entered into F1, breaking Jenson Button’s record.
In 2020, Norris unlocked his first major milestone at the Austrian Grand Prix by achieving his maiden podium finish. After Lewis Hamilton was given a five second time penalty, Norris was able to close the gap on the then-Mercedes driver to finish P3 and go on to set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Despite the successive line of podiums in F1, including a historic 1-2 in Monza where former F1 driver Daniel Riccardo took his final win for the Woking-based team in 2021, a P1 trophy remained slightly out of touch for Norris.
As time went on, and the car’s ability to challenge the front-runners increased, questions were raised about if Norris had what it took to become a race winner and world champion. After close calls like Sochi 2021, his critics were silenced as Norris’ long-awaited victory finally arrived in Miami in 2024.
On the back of a dominant display with the MCL38, the turn-around in performance was just a spark of what was to come for the McLaren team over the course of the 2024 season.
As the dominant McLaren continued to showcase its capabilities across different types of racetracks, from traditional circuits like Zandvoort to street circuits like Singapore, the gap between the championship leader Max Verstappen and emerging championship contender Norris continued to ebb and flow. Although outside noise insisted that a championship battle was not realistic, Norris continued his race winning form. He returned to the top step of the podium on three additional occasions during the 2024 season—Zandvoort, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
In the final four rounds of the 2024 season, it felt as though the chance for a maiden championship was slipping away from Norris especially after the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix where the changing weather conditions caught him and the team out.
Despite the potential for a championship battle between Norris and Verstappen, it all came to an end in Las Vegas where Verstappen won the title after finishing ahead of Norris. Ultimately, the Dutchman sealed his fourth consecutive WDC with a 63-point gap to Norris.
Although Norris was out of contention for the WDC, it was all still to play for in the WCC. Arriving at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, both McLaren and Ferrari were still in contention for the title; both teams had been waiting at least a decade for one of the biggest titles in motorsports to return to their base. After an opening lap collision between Piastri and Verstappen, it all came down to Norris to win the race and therefore gain the points needed to beat out Ferrari.
After a picture-perfect race, including a phenomenally executed pitstop by the McLaren team for Norris, McLaren were able to seal the victory. In winning the race, Norris brought the constructor’s title back to the MTC for the first time since 1998. The gap between the team’s last WCC championship win and this victory was 26 years; neither McLaren driver had been born when the Woking based team last won the title.
Coming into the 2025 season, all eyes were on the papaya team to see if they would be able to reproduce the same performance from the end of last season. Not only were the team able to match their performance from the end of 2024, but they also showcased themselves as the team to beat from the opening race.
Despite changing weather conditions which got the better of multiple drivers, Norris confidently took the chequered flag and asserted himself as one of the drivers to beat for the remainder of the season.
The season so far has been one of two halves for Norris with wonderful highs such as wins in Monaco and Silverstone but also devastating lows such as his collision with Piastri in Canada and a mechanical DNF in Zandvoort.
In Monaco, Norris became the first driver to ever complete a lap around the famed circuit in under 70 seconds. Despite mounting pressure throughout the race from hometown hero Charles Leclerc and current world champion Verstappen, Norris held onto his lead and won the crown jewel of F1.
In Silverstone, Norris triumphed again in changing weather conditions reminiscent of Australia but this time in front of his home-crowd. After teammate Piastri was given a 10 second time penalty, Norris remained in control and won the race; he became the 13th British driver to win the British Grand Prix. His triumph at Silverstone was matched with another race win in Hungary, the first time in his career he had achieved back-to-back wins.
In the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris made an opening lap move on his teammate which allowed him to return to the podium and an emphatic win in Mexico City saw his first victory since Hungary.
However, the season has not been without its challenges for Norris for reasons in and outside of his control. In Canada, Norris tried an ill-advised move on his teammate which saw him unable to finish the race while Piastri sustained no damage and finished in fourth.
The Canadian Grand Prix podium, as well as the podium for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, remain the only ones of the season not to feature at least one papaya driver. With the points gap growing, outside noise began to comment that the next few races could be the championship decider. Emphatically, Norris rose to the occasion with successive race wins in Silverstone and Budapest.
Returning from the summer break, Norris would have hoped to continue his close pursuit of his teammate in the bid to win his first championship title this season but instead, Zandvoort saw him falling further away from Piastri. After a mechanical DNF, his first since 2023, the gap had widened to 34 points between himself and the championship leader.
Since the Dutch Grand Prix, Norris has driven like a man with a purpose having recorded four podiums in five grands prix including a race victory. His drive in Mexico particularly, recording the largest win margin of 2025 so far, showcased a driver with the championship on his mind.
After consistently beating his teammate and finally returning to the top step of the podium in Mexico, Norris has retaken the lead of the WDC for the first time since 20th April 2025. With a true fight for the championship on his hands in what will no doubt be his strongest season so far in F1, the difference that a year can make is unprecedented.
Since his promotion to McLaren in 2019, Norris has consistently been achieving new heights with them. Although the performance of the McLaren cars has fluctuated over the years, Norris has continued his upwards trajectory.
CEO of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown, has always hailed Norris as a talent worth having. In an interview a few years ago, the CEO stated: “I think [Norris] is as good as anyone on the grid” and described Norris as “a franchise driver”.
The trajectory that Norris’ career, following the progression that McLaren have been able to make with their car, has taken over the last year is almost incomprehensible. For Norris, the difference a year can make is the difference between zero career wins and 9 career wins; it is the difference between a great driver and a true championship contender.
For Brown, and his new vision of McLaren that he has sought to popularise over the last few years, Norris encompasses and represents a new chapter in the brand’s famed history.
love this article! a lot of people sleep on norris and his abilities as a driver. he's really consistent and it shows in this article. of course, his bad moments like the canada dnf or losing the lead in the first lap last year can't be ignored, but he's improved since then. this especially emphasises his skills as a driver after the mexico gp. the driver knows how to handle cars that aren't the fastest, and that is only because he's spent years with mclaren and understood the car inside out with his team! great article! can't wait to read more by this journalist!