By Alan Baldwin
ABU DHABI, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Mentally fragile, too cocky, a privileged Gen Z kid bankrolled by a wealthy father, rapid but lacking the killer instinct that separates champions from the rest — Lando Norris has faced plenty of criticism on his road to the top in Formula One.
He has been booed by hostile crowds in parts of the world with different favourites, replying with a smile and wave from the podium, and taken flak for mistakes including colliding with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
The 26-year-old, who was world karting champion in 2013 and became Britain’s 11th Formula One champion since the 1950s with third place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, has repeatedly made the naysayers eat their words.
There are plenty of fired-up fans ready to defend their hero, although maybe not in Australia where questions have been asked and conspiracies raised about alleged McLaren favouritism of the Brit over local boy Piastri.
Until last year’s Miami Grand Prix, social media keyboard warriors dubbed Norris ‘Lando No-wins’ — holder of the Formula One record for most podiums without a win (15) after finishing runner-up eight times in 110 starts.
That matter dealt with, the focus turned to the McLaren driver’s inability to convert pole positions into victories — a ‘fact’ he buried this season by winning the Melbourne opener from the top slot.
Of his seven wins this campaign, five have come from pole position.
NATURAL SPEED AND STRONG WORK ETHIC
Norris’ family background has come under scrutiny, with former karting rivals talking of how he enjoyed the best of everything.
His father Adam’s fortune, from financial services, has been put at more than 200 million pounds ($264.72 million).
That is not uncommon in motorsport, where the costs of rising through the ranks are immense, and there has been no questioning Norris’s speed and work ethic.
In his early days at McLaren, after graduating from Formula Two in the same class as George Russell and Alex Albon, Norris could be found after races helping the mechanics strip down cars and pack up.
His friendship with Red Bull’s four-times world champion Verstappen, forged in virtual racing and with a common bond of being the sons of Belgian-Flemish mothers, is another thing critics have latched on to as a sign that he was somehow in the Dutch driver’s thrall.
Last year they clashed in Austria and Norris spoke of losing respect for the Dutch driver unless he apologised for a collision. Within days he had changed his tune and said an apology would not be necessary.
Some saw that as a fatal weakness, but others see the ability to move on and reset as a strength.
“Resilience, maturity and calmness. And he still gets grumpy,” said McLaren chief executive Zak Brown when asked what had changed with Norris this season.
“He just recovers quicker versus maybe what we would have seen a year ago… He’s able to compartmentalise and shorten his time when he gets frustrated… he recovers really quick now.”
While he still publicly beats himself up for errors and missed opportunities, Norris is also perfectly capable of dishing it out to others.
“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about,” he said in Qatar when Verstappen suggested he would have romped away with the title if driving for McLaren.
HEART ON SLEEVE
Norris has increasingly worn his heart on his sleeve, speaking out openly about mental health issues and becoming a role model as a new type of F1 driver far removed from stereotypes of old.
Retired four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel was quick to identify that attitude as a source of strength rather than weakness.
“Heroism is fine but it’s also part of the heroism to just talk about your problems and your weakness. I think that’s a great development to see and to witness,” he told Reuters in April.
At the same time Norris and Piastri, both privately-educated in Britain, have pushed old-fashioned ‘play up and play the game’ values of fair play and team spirit while simultaneously fighting for the title.
Norris will never be a cartoon villain, one revelling in mind games and offering tissues for unhappy rivals to wipe their tears, and nor will he be an enigmatic Iceman or a champion tearing down barriers in the manner of Lewis Hamilton.
The kid who grew up with Italian MotoGP great Valentino Rossi as his idol, and is now the driver with most starts for McLaren in the team’s history, has earned his success.
“He probably did (care about the criticism) but that’s all behind him now,” said Brown.
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(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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