Lando Norris will learn a lot from the 2024 season having come close to winning the Drivers’ Championship, while also sealing McLaren’s first Constructors’ title since 1998.
Although Norris made a few mistakes in his battles with Max Verstappen, it was his consistency throughout the year coupled with teammate Oscar Piastri that enabled McLaren to break their 26-year win drought.
It is a remarkable turnaround for McLaren considering their package was one of the slowest on the grid in 2023, but key hirings such as Peter Prodromou and Rob Marshall from Red Bull enabled them to exploit the performance areas of the current ruleset.
It all enabled Norris to finish in the top three of the F1 world championship for the first time in his career, having recently attended the FIA Prize Giving Gala to receive his runner-up trophy in Kigali, Rwanda.
Norris has been part of McLaren since the 2019 season and developed a lot as a driver since then. His engineer, Will Joseph, explained the ‘massive’ difference between now and when he started when speaking on the Fast and Curious podcast.
Lando Norris’ maturity has changed ‘massively’ since starting at McLaren
There have been several on-track moments that required a mature response from Norris, including the team orders issued during the Hungarian Grand Prix when his engineer told him to let Piastri through to win the race after a strategy mistake by the team.
Although Norris forfeited key points, it showed a maturity that has only come with experience according to Joseph.
“He’s changed massively. You only have to look at the photos to realize how much he’s grown up since the boy that he was when he joined. And he’s matured a lot,” said Joseph.
“He’s grown up and he’s driving in the way we work together. And every year we kind of have to reevaluate what our goals are going to be and what our targets are and what we’re going to concentrate on. Because what they were in year one is no longer relevant.
“And he’s now in a position where he’s sort of driving us and asking more things from us, which is what we wanted. That’s leadership. That’s what his role now is.
“So he’s grown up massively and we’ve grown up together. And our bond is based on trust. And there are things that I will and won’t say in front of people about the relationship we have and things we’ve done together.”
Can Lando Norris challenge for the 2025 title?
The 2025 McLaren will be an evolution of the MCL38 as teams will also be switching focus to their 2026 cars from January for a portion of the year.
It means McLaren is unlikely to bring any significant upgrades to their car throughout the season, but rivals are likely to be in the same boat as they try to maximise their chances for F1’s big regulation change.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration
The Briton stands a great chance of replicating his late charge to the title this year earlier in the season, as it was the run of victories at the start of this year that effectively enabled Verstappen to defend his crown.
Norris will need to be more ruthless in his approach to racing Verstappen, with McLaren CEO Zak Brown alluding to how his drivers will approach racing the Dutchman more aggressively in future.
Leave feedback about this