Road to Formula 1

He was born on 13 November 1999 in Bristol and grew up in Glastonbury, in the south-west of England. He took up karting in 2008: in 2012 he won the British Formula Kart Stars series, in 2013 he became European champion in the KF-Junior class, and in 2014 world champion in the KF class. In 2015, his very first season in single-seaters, he won the British MSA Formula (Formula 4), and in 2016 he collected three titles in a single year: the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and its Northern European championship.

In 2017, aged 17, he joined the McLaren driver development programme and won European Formula 3 with Carlin: nine wins and eight poles in the season, with the title sealed at Hockenheim on 14 October 2017, making him the youngest champion in the series’ history. In 2018 he became McLaren’s test and reserve driver and drove in first practice for the team for the first time at the Belgian Grand Prix. Alongside that, in Formula 2 with Carlin, he won the first race of the season in Bahrain and finished the championship second, behind George Russell.

Debut and first podiums

He made his World Championship debut for McLaren at the Australian Grand Prix on 17 March 2019, finishing 12th from eighth on the grid. He scored his first points two weeks later, on 31 March 2019 in Bahrain: sixth after starting ninth. In his first season he finished in the points 11 times.

He took his first podium in the very first race of 2020: at the Austrian Grand Prix on 5 July 2020 he started third and finished third. In 2021 he was third three times — at Imola on 18 April, in Monaco on 23 May and in Austria on 4 July — and at the Italian Grand Prix on 12 September 2021 McLaren scored a one-two: Daniel Ricciardo first, Norris second.

He took his first pole at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi on 26 September 2021 and led most of the race, but rain arrived in the closing laps. Norris stayed out on slicks, went off the track and finished seventh; the win went to Lewis Hamilton.

In the midfield

The 2022 season brought a single podium — third place at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on 24 April 2022. In 2023 McLaren got stronger as the season went on: from the British Grand Prix on 9 July 2023, where Norris started and finished second, to the end of the year he stood on the podium seven times — at Silverstone and then in Hungary, Singapore, Japan, Qatar, the United States and Brazil — and he finished the season sixth in the Drivers’ Championship.

First win and the Constructors’ Championship

He took his first win at the Miami Grand Prix on 5 May 2024, having started fifth. At the Spanish Grand Prix on 23 June 2024 he took his first pole since Sochi, and in all he started from the front eight times in 2024. His next three wins all came from pole: the Dutch Grand Prix on 25 August, Singapore on 22 September and Abu Dhabi on 8 December 2024.

He finished the championship second, behind Max Verstappen. The Constructors’ Championship went down to the final race: victory for Norris in Abu Dhabi on 8 December 2024 kept McLaren ahead of Ferrari and gave the team its first title since 1998.

World Champion

He opened the 2025 season with a win from pole at the Australian Grand Prix on 16 March 2025. He then won the Monaco Grand Prix on 25 May and the Austrian Grand Prix on 29 June, both from pole, and on 6 July 2025 he won his home British Grand Prix at Silverstone for the first time. On 3 August he added the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After he retired from the Dutch Grand Prix on 31 August 2025, the gap to his team-mate Oscar Piastri, who was leading the championship, grew. In the autumn Norris won the Mexico City Grand Prix on 26 October and the São Paulo Grand Prix on 9 November 2025 from pole, and in Las Vegas on 22 November he was disqualified after the finish. He sealed the title with third place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 7 December 2025, ahead of Verstappen and Piastri. He became McLaren’s first World Champion since 2008, and the team won the Constructors’ Championship for the second year running.

2026 season

2026 is his eighth season in a row with McLaren; he races with the number 1, alongside Oscar Piastri, and the championship runs to new technical regulations — with active aerodynamics and power units that draw around half their output from the electrical side. He opened the season with fifth place at the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March 2026, and at the Chinese Grand Prix on 15 March neither McLaren could take the start because of power unit problems — the first race Norris had ever missed. On 20 April 2026 he received the Laureus award for Breakthrough of the Year.

Second place in Miami on 3 May 2026 and third at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on 14 June were his first podiums of the year; he retired in Canada on 24 May and in Monaco on 7 June. He took his first win of the season from pole at the Hungarian Grand Prix on 26 July 2026, and his second — also from pole — at the Dutch Grand Prix on 23 August. On 29 August 2026 McLaren announced that his contract had been extended until at least the end of 2030. On 13 September 2026 he started from pole at the new Madrid circuit and finished third, and the next day he drove 38 laps in the McLaren MCL-HY hypercar at a test in Portimão.