Thursday, May 06, 2021
A development that inspires
Lando Norris blows up the Formula 1 elite
Not Valtteri Bottas, not Sergio Perez, not Charles Leclerc: Shooting star Lando Norris is third in the Formula 1 championship after the first three races. But the young Briton is not only a real asset to the premier class because of his skills on the track .
For a good gag, Lando Norris makes common cause with the opponent. In the paddock in Portugal, the Formula 1 shooting star threw a paper plane into an office of the Red Bull team. The message scrawled on it: “HELP!”. Because a pushy cameraman from the cops had followed him every step of the way and hadn’t let go of Norris. The action by both teams, which was not meant to be serious, was well received on social media. When Lando Norris is up to something, the laughs are usually not far. And whoever has the young Brit behind them on the track quickly has a problem. The McLaren driver is the positive appearance of the still young season.
“For his third year it is great to see with what certainty and with what overview he sets his maneuvers without risking too much,” said his German team boss Andreas Seidl. It is “just fun” to watch Norris and also to listen to the radio: “We will still have a lot of fun with him.” The 21-year-old’s balance sheet is already impressive. Norris scored 37 points in the first three races – more than Valtteri Bottas (32) in the superior Mercedes, more than Ferrari star Charles Leclerc (28) and more than Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez (22).
Norris also has his new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo (16), seven-time Grand Prix winner, under control. After racing duels it is 3-0. He is very happy for his team and happy with his performance, said Norris after finishing fifth in Portimao. For McLaren, first place behind the two top teams Mercedes and Red Bull is actually the optimum. In Norris, however, the traditional racing team has a driver who is able to push the limits upwards. In Imola, Norris moved up from seventh to third and made it onto the podium.
“It still annoys me”
Even second place on the grid would have been possible in Italy. In qualifying, however, Norris’ fastest lap was canceled because he had crossed the lane. “It still annoys me,” said Norris a few days later. Not in an interview, not in a PR video of his team – no, he commented on his mistake with the streaming service Twitch. Norris has over 850,000 subscribers there, over a million on Twitter, and his Instagram account is 2.9 million. However, his activities on Twitch set him apart from other pilots.
The service is actually a classic medium for gamers. And Norris is one of them. This highly paid full professional and potential Formula 1 world champion of the future then sits comfortably in front of the screen in a room that is diffusely lit by colorful neon lamps. Norris plays shooters, drives racing simulators or comments on videos of his own Formula 1 races – and thus creates an otherwise difficult-to-reach proximity to the fans.
For Formula 1, that’s gold. Norris is one of the most talented drivers in the field and reaches the important young target group on his own. This is also the aim of the Formula 1 partnership with the streaming giant Netflix, which produces a multi-part documentary every year. Lando Norris does not only outgrow his supporting role in this.
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