lando: "that’s also where i went to my first ever racetrack was in yeovil, a track called clay pigeon. it was after school. my dad took both my brother oli, and myself to the- and it was a british championship, so it was a busy event. but it was my first time ever going to any event or anything.
i can remember watching on the pit straight and walking around the whole paddock area and i was like ‘oh my god, who's this guy?’ he had number 46. he also had on the front ‘the doctor’ and as soon as i saw that, i was like ‘oh my god, he knows valentino rossi.’
mr. alex albon, on my first ever day at a racetrack. and yeah, now i'm racing against that guy. we're both in formula 1, which is pretty cool."
had to look up these videos again after that last gifset and just to do a side by side of their interviews when I realized they filmed at the same time
Oscar "likes to get settled in the car pretty early" Piastri
immediately gets to his mark ready to go
polite cat face
questions are vague bc they checked his socials and interviews and still couldn't get anything juicy or silly to ask about
likes hot chocolate and old fashioned toothbrushes ok there grampa
wackiest fact was one time naming a car Silvia bc of Silverstone
would give up ever living in Melbourne again to continue racing (loyal!)
holds hands politely in front of himself
thumbs up and ambles out immediately when done
vs
Lando "usually skipping around until the last possible minute" Norris
celebrates his own entrance
skips around
eats brownie and watches cricket on TV
get momentarily confused by his surroundings
keeps touching himself
fidget fingers
questions are super tailored because he shares pretty much everything about his life on every social media platform
chose staying with McLaren over changing teams every year (loyal!)
leaves with another brownie in his mouth
gets distracted seeing himself in a mirror on the way out
telegraph 🏆 @/landonorris could roll out of bed at next week's British Grand Prix at Silverstone and stumble into his McLaren motorhome in a matter of minutes.
Norris, though, would rather take the long way around each morning.
"But I prefer to drive in because I want to get that buzz.
"I like the feeling of driving through the gates, through the crowds. There's no place like Silverstone for that, especially for McLaren."
Ahead of the British Grand Prix, McLaren's rising star talks childhood, the paranoia of fame and why Verstappen is both friend and rival.
👉 Read the full interview at the link in @/Telegraph's bio.
lando: “in my first years of racing, which would be 2008-2009-2010. also apart from mr. albon, there was a familiar name called george russell.
i remember racing against him, a few times actually. there was one race, for some reason we were in the c final. like, you got a final, b final, c final. it was a track called kimbolton. i think we finished 1-2 or something in the c final. then we went top 4 or something, go through from the b final and then went up into the a final.
and yeah, that was like one of my first times kind of racing, and actually being like half decent against him. because i was much smaller, much- not a lot younger but kind of just starting out comparing to him.
in the next couple years, george and alex race together, but they're always kind of a category above me. until we met again in f2, in 2018.
so, there's a few guys that are in formula 1 now. so, cool to see kind of where we started back there. and yeah, see us in f1 now.”
lando talking about his working process with the team:
🗣️: “you spend your whole time sitting in the car and then you're translating through what you're feeling and doing to your huge team. and it's all about the team, you've said that consistently, i know. but can you talk to us a little bit about that collaborative process? i mean, you know, in the good times and the bad times. i mean, how does it work when you're in the car and you're communicating with them and the changes you make?”
lando: “the most important thing is translating feelings into, say, normal words, and ways that engineers can understand, some which maybe have never driven a car before. and i've taken my engineers karting, to get to understand certain things of how i might feel things. so, when i'm trying to say ‘i'm feeling this’ or ‘i'm feeling that’, they're almost able to translate it. they almost have that understanding themselves rather than just going ‘what the hell is this guy saying’ and then just doing something separate.
so for me, that's very important is relationships, first of all, and i've been with my engineers and my group now for, well, since i joined in formula 1, so 8 years. but i guess that's my job is to translate my feelings through. i guess every driver does differently, but visually, what i'm feeling through my body and my movement through the steering wheel. from an audio point of view, what am i hearing now through the engine? and the battery and how are those things working.
to my engineers, who then can maybe put a better setup on the car and change the mechanical side of things, some aerodynamic side of things, to give me either a better feeling or a car that, at times, might be harder to drive, but potentially quicker.
we have to make those trade-offs of what do i think i can get out of a race car? do i need a more comfortable car to drive, so i can be more consistent, but maybe slower? or can i take the risk of a more aggressive, more optimistic setup to get better lap times, but be more inconsistent?
so after deciding these things, then you've got the final part, which is everything gets relayed back to the factory, back here in woking in the technology center. where you have basically the rest of the team, another 900 people or so, who are taking all these comments and turning it into future parts. so, they're redesigning the front wing, the rear wing, the floor based upon my comments and oscar's comments. so you always want to make sure you're saying the right thing, because that can develop a new part that gets made in 2-3 months’ time or one month time.
that is my hope, let's say, and my knowledge that this will be a part that can help me win races down the line. so, you kind of have short-term, what can i do better now for the next session, or in the session. and then you also have what's gonna help us be a better team in one month, six months, one year's time.
so there's already things now that i'm saying, that i know can't change now, but i know that in march next year, even though we're still there now, there are things that we're already having to decide now to make happen on the car for next season. so it's a lot of, say, pressure at the same time, not just on the driving, but to make sure that we're designing things and i'm giving good feedback for present and also future.”
🗣️: “Max will be still engineered by him [Gianpiero Lambiase], so we assume, which is going to be interesting, especially if that carries on beyond this season. What about him? People are interpreting Lambiase going as a signal, a further signal, he might take a sabbatical or a rest or quit altogether. Would you be sorry if he wasn't there competing with you? [..]?”
Lando: “Do I enjoy racing against him? Yes and no, at times. But just because he's, I think, one of the best you'll ever see in Formula 1. He's a tough fighter and he makes your life incredibly hard sometimes. But that's a good thing, right? And I think everyone wants Max in Formula 1. Who knows? I have no idea what he's going to go and do. Of course, I want to race against him for as long as possible because you always want to try and prove yourself against the best. And he is that.
Yeah, go ask him, I guess. He can do whatever he wants. He's earned the right to do that. He doesn't have to do anything. But even I enjoyed watching him in GTs the other day and that kind of thing. So yeah, he's earned the right to go and do whatever he wants.”
🗣️: “This is obviously a special place here. I remember I was here when you won your maiden race. I remember the entire paddock just losing their mind. And we were just like 'yes!' What does this mean to you coming back here every year now?”
Lando: “It's a great memory for me. I remember all of these things. I remember the last few laps. I remember the race itself.”
🗣️: "What do you remember about the race?"
Lando: "I remember the first stint not looking amazing from my side. I was a bit slower, I tried to save my tyres at the beginning and then come on stronger at the end. Because of that, we went long, we got the safety carpet, stopped, came out in the lead. So I remember all these little things. Then obviously I remember my last few laps. Everything kind of goes a little bit slower, you feel very lonely out there. But then you see the end. I remember coming out of the last corner, the chequered flag, looking up at the grandstand. So I can still picture everything and that's what makes it so special.”
🗣️: “You're very good at storytelling.”
Lando: “Really?”
🗣️: “Yeah. I remember the FIA award ceremony when you were looking at the trophy and you were like ‘this means everything to me.’ But it's crazy that those are the details…”
Lando: “I mean I want to remember all the good times, right? Everything in life is about creating memories and trying to hang on to as many as you can. That was a very special one for me so I enjoyed that and that's what I get reminded of every time I come here. Of course I want to repeat it as often as I can.”
[..]
Lando: "Hopefully, it doesn't rain on Sunday."
🗣️: "You don't want it to rain?
Lando: "I don't want it to rain. These cars are just weird enough to drive but you never know. You never know. A lot of things can happen, so we'll see."
🗣️: "You do good in the rain though, I feel like."
Lando: "No, I do, I know. It's actually, in terms of stats, it's my best conditions. But yeah, it's going to be a big challenge for everyone and these cars and everything is going to be different and we've got some upgrades on the car this weekend. Let's just chill and see how it goes."
