Lando Norris opens up about the course of his Formula 1 career so far. According to the reigning world champion, there are four men who have played an important role in his current success, and the Briton would therefore like to put them in the spotlight for a moment. Starting at the beginning: his father Adam Norris.
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Lando Norris won his first Formula 1 world title at the last Abu Dhabi GP. The Briton thus saw a long-cherished dream become reality. Norris looks back on the years in which he worked on achieving the highest possible goal in Formula 1, and which four people played a key role in his career.
“In first place is my father,” Norris begins at the start in a video for McLaren. “He loved racing as a child. When he grew up, he couldn’t really do it himself. But he worked hard and gave both my brother and me the chance to get into racing. He enabled me to make my dream come true.” His love for motorsport therefore began with a shared hobby with his father. “I remember playing Gran Turismo on the PlayStation with my father when I was three or four. That’s where it all really started.”
In addition, Norris also drew a lot of inspiration from a completely different branch of sport: MotoGP. The Briton therefore calls MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi his second role model. “Valentino Rossi, a man I looked up to as a child. When he was younger, I was more interested in motorbikes than in four-wheelers. So, Valentino Rossi,” he continues.
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Brown and Stella
The last men on Norris’s list are less surprising. “And then the next two, they are quite simple,” says the reigning world champion as well. “Zak Brown. I’ve been working with Zak for years. I don’t think you’ll ever find anyone who works as hard as Zak. If you ever spend a day with Zak, you might get to talk to him for five minutes, because the rest of the time is filled with phone calls, meetings, emails, texts, and everything else. These days you’re lucky if you even get to play a round of golf with Zak.”
“And then the last one, to keep it within the team, is Andrea Stella,” Norris concludes his list. “Someone I’ve worked with since I joined McLaren and who came over from Ferrari many years ago. He is someone who always opens your eyes to things you would never have thought of yourself, who gives you extra insights, someone who makes you think about many things.”
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