Lando Norris at the 2026 F1 Miami Grand Prix

Speed Read: 3 Things You Didn’t Know About Lando Norris

Misha Husic

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5/4/2026

2026-05-04 12:45

His racing idol never competed in F1

Every F1 driver has had that one person they looked up to as a kid and dreamed of becoming one day. For most, it’s another F1 driver–a legend like Ayrton Senna or even Lewis Hamilton. But for young Norris, it wasn’t anyone in F1. In fact, it wasn’t even anyone driving a car. For him, it was none other than the king on two wheels, and nine-time motorcycle World Champion, Valentino Rossi.

It should be no surprise that Norris found his hero in MotoGP, given that he started out riding bikes as a child long before he ever got into racing on four wheels.

“That was when I was five,” he recalled in an F1 Icons article back in 2023. “I didn’t even know what a go-kart was until I was seven – and that’s when I had a quad bike, and then I had a motocross bike. It definitely got me interested in motorsport – I remember watching stuff on what was Motors TV in the UK – and I loved motorbikes.”

But why Rossi, specifically?

“Initially what got me into Valentino was just his colors,” Norris said. “When you’re at that age it’s hard to like anything for a reason other than it looked cool!”

And while F1 would certainly not be the same without him, one has to wonder if there is an alternate universe where Norris is competing in MotoGP instead. That said, Norris did follow in Rossi’s footsteps in a way, as the Italian test drove for the Ferrari F1 team several times and even considered a permanent switch. Ultimately, however, it didn’t pan out as Rossi chose to stay in the world of bikes.

Norris held record for most podiums before a win

The maiden podium and maiden win are two things on every F1 driver’s bucket list for their career. For Norris, the maiden podium came fairly early on in his career, during the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, the first race of just his second year in F1. Norris finished the season opener in third, behind Valtteri Bottas, who was still at Mercedes at the time, and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

While it only took 22 races for him to get that first top-three result, the wait for his maiden win proved to be much, much longer. In fact, Norris would go on to stand on the podium a total of 15 times across 110 grands prix before finally securing the top spot during the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. With those 15 podiums, he held the record for the most top-three finishes without a single win.

Yet good things come to those who wait, as the likes of Jean Alesi, Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine all also held 15 podiums before their first victory. What’s more, Miami 2024 proved to be the turning point in Norris’s career, as he went on to win four total races that year, cementing himself as a rival to Max Verstappen and putting major pressure on the Dutchman during the fight for his fourth title. In 2025, Norris turned up the heat even more with seven wins, bringing his total to 11.

How many will he be able to get this year? Only time will tell.

Away from the grid, he’s a musician

While racing is at the core of every driver’s life, many of them have a plethora of other passions away from the grid, and Norris is no exception. From gaming and streaming to golf and paddle, he has made several of his hobbies well known, but one sticks out among the rest: music.

Norris’s passion for music has led him down several interesting avenues, the first of which is drumming. He picked up the drums during the pandemic in 2021, while F1 was at a stagnation like so many other sports at the time. He even took lessons from Josh Devine, who was the live drummer for none other than One Direction!

And Norris did not stop just at drums. He also tried his hand at DJing, with some help from his good friend and well-known DJ and producer, Martin Garrix, as well as other big names in the industry such as Zedd and Kygo.

But one of his most intriguing ventures into the world of music came in the form of a song with his former McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo. The two teamed up with a group of session musicians and Grammy Award winning producer Matt Lawrence at British Grove Studios with the task of creating a new anthem for McLaren all of which was documented on the McLaren YouTube channel for our viewing pleasure.