Lando Norris was a firecracker in his junior racing career. Associated with McLaren since 2015, the Briton was promoted to Formula 1 in 2019 before he even turned 20 years old. In the 6 years since, Norris has slowly but surely risen to the occasion, putting on impressive miles on the racetracks while inching closer and closer to beating the reigning world champion.
However, his history with McLaren has been a difficult one. Since his 2019 debut, Norris has been the first and only F1 driver to not win a single race in their first four years with the Papaya team. The statistics were so shocking that it wasn’t long until fans began coming up with a label that aptly described the 25-year-old’s history in Formula 1.
Lando Norris earns a cruel nickname from F1 fans
Despite his impressive racing career, Lando Norris is also one of the most ill-fated drivers in F1 history. He has consistently come second to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the current and 4-time World Drivers’ Champion. In fact, it wasn’t until 6 years into his F1 career, midway through 2024, that he even managed to win a race against his Dutch rival.
Understandably, after 6 years of no wins to show for himself, Lando Norris earned the nickname Lando Nowins – a derisive moniker that even his rivals were appalled at. However, the 25-year-old driver entered the 2024 season with a car that was powerful enough to go wheel-to-wheel with Red Bull.
As such, when asked about it in Drive to Survive Season 7 episode Frenemies, Norris had a strong retort for the fans who were bold enough to come up with such a dismal name:
The Lando ‘No Wins’ probably came from—I don’t know. Just, people in love with their keyboard, I think… My weakness is caring too much about what people say or think or feel. And then I kind of get into this spiral, which has been my problem with making progress in my career. I just got to focus on my own driving, and that’s all I can control.
Sure enough, on 5 May 2024, in a stunning turnaround from his previous F1 stats, Norris went on to secure his career’s first win in 6 years at the Miami Grand Prix. Shortly thereafter, he went on to beat Max Verstappen – again – in his home turf at the Dutch Grand Prix, where the Red Bull racer had until then remained undefeated since the start of his racing career.
Lando Norris makes a stunning recovery in 2024
For all the second-place finishes of his career, Lando Norris has made a stunning recovery since his Miami win in 2024. The McLaren driver went on to win 3 other Grands Prix since his maiden career win in May, repeating the feat in the Netherlands, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi sequentially.
By the end of 2024, Norris had singlehandedly risen above every other F1 driver on the grid (excluding Max Verstappen) with a record 374 points compared to Verstappen’s 437 (via GP Fans). Norris became the runner-up in the World Drivers’ Championship, but that wasn’t even the most exciting part of the 2024 season.
For the first time in 26 years, McLaren took home the World Constructors’ Championship title since their last win in 1998. Lando Norris, alongside his 21-year-old teammate Oscar Piastri, scored a record 666 points on the tracks. This has not only elevated Norris’s status going into the 2025 championship race but also made him a strong rival contender against Red Bull’s undefeated Max Verstappen.
Drive to Survive Season 7 is currently streaming on Netflix.
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