The Driver Who Helped Me Love Racing - Luke’s Choice: Lando Norris

by Luke Barraclough

I was raised originally as a strong Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes fan because of my Dad and was brought to Silverstone to buy Mercedes merchandise, so they became my team but I then fell out of love with motorsport with the inability to watch it or enjoy it due to my short attention span at a young age.

However in 2018 I watched an interview with British driver Lando Norris who had been promoted to Formula 2 with the Carlin team and I related a lot to Lando’s constant criticism of himself and the desire to be better than he already is.

📸 Lando Norris in F2 action.

So in turn, I began to follow F2 very closely hoping that one day Lando would be promoted to F1 as he was performing well along with Alex Albon and George Russell. That day finally came for Norris in 2019 and he raced in his first Grand Prix in Australia which was a brilliant day for me and my Dad had also been following Lando’s career.

Still though at this time I was very closely following F1 and began to fall away from it again. Lando then reignited my love for F1 after I watched another interview and found him extremely relatable and hilarious. This sparked my interest once again in 2021 as I followed quite arguably the most incredible season of F1 ever.

📸 Norris had a strong 2021 season but endured probably his most painful F1 moment to date at Sochi.

Lando was performing well and I felt a sense of pride which piqued my interest even further and gave me the dream to be a journalist by watching such a young driver to things unimaginable by getting to the most prestigious level of motorsports. He really made me feel unstoppable with my dreams.

The way Lando presented himself amongst his teammates and his team as a whole was inspiring and to see such a young driver scoring podiums in just his second season of F1, capitalising on a penalty for Lewis Hamilton at the Red Bull Ring, and winning his first race in Miami this year was truly remarkable.

📸 Norris celebrates in Miami.

Lando Norris will always be the most influential driver for me as he inspired not only my personality, but my future career choices and my ability to keep on working on myself and knowing I can do better.

📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, McLaren Racing, Lando Norris.