On the topic of the mentality of Lando Norris
So we all know the hot topic for most news outlets in F1 is discussing whether Lando has the mentality of a world champion. I’ve decided to ramble about this for a bit so prepare for a long post.
Also, I would like to say at the start of this post, that my asks are open for your opinions on this post. Let’s have a healthy conversation about it. This post is not fact, it’s my opinion, and I’m interested in what you all think too.
So, for this conversation to be had and for this post to make any sense whatsoever, I feel like I need to divide it into sections. First of all I think we need to ask ourselves why this has become such a topic of conversation.
1. Why has Lando’s mentality been under scrutiny?
So, this is the question, isn’t it. I don’t think there is an easy answer to this one, but I have multiple ideas about what has contributed to this.
I would like to preface this with the fact that I haven’t been a fan of this sport for multiple years, but I have watched the last seasons back.
For me, there has been an obvious shift in how commentators and interviewers talk to and about Lando. During his first years in the sport, 2019-2022, he was often talked about as a great talent. He was praised for his brave driving and relentless defending on track, and his hunger for more off track. Lando was often funny in interviews and was generally liked by drivers and news personnel alike.
I think something big shifted during 2024. I believe fans were sick of Max winning. Max, as much as he is praised for his amazing race craft, has not been generally liked as a personality - at least not to the same extent that Lando has been. When people thought that Lando could challenge max for the WDC, the pressure was therefore immense. People wanted the funny, bright eyed and impressive Lando to beat the “villain” that was Max.
This, of course, was new to Lando. He was used to driving a car that was mid-field at best, only having been able to put it on the podium due to his talent. Now, he had a car that made him able to challenge for wins regularly, and had to face the pressure of what that meant, along with the fact that not only his fans wanted him to win, but that everyone who wasn’t a Max fan wanted him to win. The media wanted him to win, because what a story that would make.
This, in turn, meant that after the races where Lando didn’t perform according to the expectations of others, people were angry. The viewers and the media had put their trust in him to be the one to finally beat Max. And he was failing them. It became personal on a level it usually isn’t. People weren’t just cheering for Lando, they were demanding greatness. It was a battle between the hero and the villain, and the peoples chosen hero was loosing.
This put every move Lando made under a magnifying glass. Every word chosen, every facial expression, every glance was studied and people assigned meaning to them that probably was never there in the first place. And Lando was no longer in a position where he could only impress, now he could also disappoint. Of course, feelings are strong when you’re under this kind of pressure, and I think this is where the mentality-conversions really began.
After the 2024 season, Lando became the chosen hero that failed. People wanted to put the blame on Max winning somewhere. Lando had always been a good racer, so the mistakes he made when put in a brand new situation were then by the public decided to be due to his failing mentality. He was not cut out to be a world champion.
2. The misogyny of it all
And now, you may ask, why did the public decide that his mentality meant he could not be a world champion?
Well, Lando was deemed too emotional. He couldn’t handle pressure. He wore his emotions on his sleeve. He was too self-critical. This, was not how a world champion was supposed to be.
Now, I think many of you know about how Max, now a four time world champion, used to be called “Mad Max”. Max was known to be angry, pushing Estaban Ocon after an incident on track, kicking his car after a frustrating DNF, yelling on the radio. Max, however, wasn’t called too emotional. In fact, Max is far from alone among the drivers to show anger publicly, but drivers reacting in anger has, to my knowledge, seldom or never been deemed as behaviour that is too emotional.
Of course, it is very difficult for me not to draw the very obvious parallel here between what emotions are seen as acceptable and expected, and those that are seen as a weakness. Anger, an emotion typically associated with men, was not seen as an emotion. It was seen as the common and proper response to misfortune or failure. At the same time, emotions such as disappointment (without the anger), self doubt and irritation were seen as too emotional. These are emotions more commonly associated with women. Lando was also transparent with his thoughts and emotions, also a trait more commonly associated with women.
Because of this, I feel like the misogyny within the sport fuelled the conversation about “weak mentality” even more.
Under the subject of misogyny, I also think it is necessary to talk about Lando’s looks and fanbase. Lando, by 2024, had gone through was can be called a glow up. He had grown into his features and was now seen as attractive by most. This, along with him having a lot of female fans, of course also contributed to the hatred towards Lando. People associating him with women did not make it easier for Lando. Many fans with a mindset that is more fuelled by toxic masculinity, did not see female fans as real fans. This just made them feel like Lando couldn’t be that good of a driver, since he attracted so many female fans that “only cared about his looks and not the sport”. The fact that women could actually be interested in the sport and enjoy Lando as a driver and person and not because of his looks was not possible, to many people.
I want to make this very clear before I begin this section, I adore Oscar Piastri. Both as a driver and a personality.
So, to understand more about the expectations placed on Lando and how he is perceived today, I think we need to look at his history in F1.
In 2019, Lando started his rookie year with McLaren alongside teammate Carlos Sainz. Lando was the youngest driver to ever sign for McLaren F1 at 19 years old. Carlos was 5 years older than Lando and had driven in F1 since 2015. This season, Lando showed his potential and ended with 49 points, 47 points behind his teammate. McLaren was not a top team and Carlos managed one 3rd place finish this season.
2020 was, because of the pandemic, not like a normal season. Lando and Carlos were still teammates. Lando ended his second season with 97 points, only 8 points less than his teammate. They both managed to get on the podium one time each, Lando for a 3rd place finish and Carlos for a 2nd place finish. Lando really solidified himself as a great driver this season, as Carlos was a driver of high calibre and ended up leaving McLaren for a highly sought after Ferrari-seat after this season. The fact that Lando matched Carlos this well in only his second season was not seen as an easy feat.
In 2021, Lando got a new teammate in Daniel Ricciardo. Daniel was 10 years older than Lando and had raced in formula one since 2011. Daniel was not seen as an easy competitor for Lando, having already proved himself to be a good driver. This season Lando scored 160 points, 45 points more than his teammate. Lando had four podium finishes (three 3rd places and one second place) and Daniel had one win.
2022 came and the McLaren was not seen as a competitive car this year. Lando also outperformed Daniel again. Lando ended with 122 points which was 85 points more than his teammate. Lando somehow managed to get one podium this year, which was McLarens only podium in the 2022 season. Lando managed to score points in 17 of the races, where Daniel only scored points in 8 of them.
This far, Lando has been with two teammates that are his seniors. Both his teammates were outgoing, kind of loud, big personalities. They were both respected drivers with proven abilities and Lando, with the exception of his rookie season, matched or outperformed both of them.
Now we get to 2023. Oscar Piastri joins McLaren and Lando now has to step in to the senior teammate-role. Despite Lando only being 2 years older than Oscar, he had 4 more years of experience. This changes the dynamic. Oscar also joins as someone with a more stoic personality, he is calm in media, doesn’t say too much, and Lando takes the role as the more outgoing, funny, happy go lucky teammate that he himself had in Carlos and Daniel during his first seasons in formula 1. Both Lando and Oscar impress this season, and Lando outperforms his rookie teammate by scoring 205 points, 108 more than Oscar. Lando also finishes on the podium seven times (six 2nd places, one 3rd place) and Oscar finishes the season with one second place and one third place.
By this point, Lando had proven himself to be an amazing driver. Oscar was not expected to match Landos points or driving during his rookie season, because people knew how good Lando was.
Now, we get to 2024. We all know this season and I won’t talk about it too much, but Oscar stepped up his driving this season. He still ended the season 82 points behind Lando, but I don’t think it’s fair to take that into account considering how the season played out as a whole. The point is, the fact that Oscar is a great driver, and also was seen as cool, calm and collected, only fuelled the fire that was brewing around Lando.
This, for me, is strongly connected to the misogyny of it all. Oscar showed sides to the media that are commonly associated with men. He was stoic, calm, quiet but strong. This made the fact that Lando was showing emotions stand out even more. For the first time, Lando was the teammate with the big personality and big emotions. The difference between the two also made a good story. The quiet, calm rookie that is performing better than suspected, and the emotional mess of a senior teammate who cracks under pressure. The headlines wrote themselves by this point.
It’s now gone so far that it doesn’t matter how many times Oscar himself says that he isn’t emotionless, that he feels just as much as other people, the fact that hat he has one of the most expressive faces on the grid now that he is more comfortable in front of a camera, the dynamic has already been written for them. Even this year, 2025, where we can see that Oscar is taking more of an outgoing role in press conferences and media while Lando is the more quiet one, the dynamic is already written in stone. Oscar is the quiet one. It doesn’t matter anymore if it’s true or not.
The fact that Lando now has taken a step back and lets Oscar take the lead during media and such also tells me that Lando never really wanted that role, but took it anyway because he wanted Oscar to have the time to get comfortable before he had to feel that pressure. I also think this even more now that I’ve heard Lando, on other platforms, talk about how he isn’t really that outgoing with people he doesn’t know and is naturally more quiet. But this is a conversation for another post, so I digress.
So, Lando had been the more quiet teammate next to big personalities and he had performed better than expected during his first years in formula one. Now, he is teammates with Oscar, who is not showing many emotions to media. Lando takes the role of the outgoing, big personality teammate and Oscar takes the role of the quieter teammate that performs better than expected. This could all have been fine and well, if Lando was not expected to win the 2024 WDC by the public.
4. The change in mentality
I think we can all see and feel that Lando has made some changes for the 2025 season. I think this is because of a few different reasons.
First we need to remember that the 2024 season was a new experience for Lando. He had never been in a team in F1 that could challenge for wins in that way. He had never had such high expectations on himself from the public. He was the more senior teammate, but was experiencing a lot of firsts. He had never experienced media scrutiny on this level before. This year, 2025, he knew what narrative the media was writing about him before the season even started. He knew that he no longer was this generally liked driver that he had been for his first years in formula one. He knew what to expect.
I also think Lando actually has shown more emotional intelligence than many other drivers during his entire F1 career. He has seldom been one to scream over the radio, curse out media or made a big fuss. But again, this is not the media portrayal of him since being angry is not seen as being emotional. He has also usually been one to bounce back after a bad performance and manage his expectations even though he was always hungry for more.
But, the biggest change for me, is that he has allowed himself to relax. He is no longer taking the leading role during media or press conferences. He is no longer seeing himself as a senior teammate but as someone with an equal as a teammate. He wants to beat his teammate, he doesn’t expect to beat him, and that’s a big difference in mentality.
I think he has also remembered why he is in formula one in the first place. He is racing because he loves it. He wants to have fun. He isn’t racing to create a legacy or because he has to, but because he wants to. He wants to win, sure, but not to the point where he will become a different person and loose himself for it.
I also think he has done some work on remembering whose opinions really matter. He remembers that the media and the public don’t really know him, and that he won’t be able to change their opinion no matter what he does. He remembers what means the most to him, being kind, having fun, being a good person. And most of all I think he remembers that his opinion of himself is the most important one. That he needs to able to feel good about what he does and the decisions he makes. That at the end of the day, as long as he knows who he is and what is important to him, the noise matters a lot less.
The way Lando’s mentality became such a big topic of conversation was, to me, because of a perfect storm of reasons. The public picking him as their champion and him not defeating their villain, him becoming a bigger personality, the inherent misogyny of the sport, just to name a few.
What keeps this conversation going though, is the media. It doesn’t matter that Lando has shown great maturity this season, or that he has generally been calmer than his teammate, because that does not fit the media’s narrative. That does not fit the story that the media wants to create. Media stories about Lando being calm and mature will not generate debates in comment sections, or clicks on articles. It’s simply not a story that sells well.
Another thing that perpetuates this conversation is the lingering hate towards him for failing last season. Lando was the chosen hero that failed the people, and instead of acknowledging that maybe the people put too much pressure on the hero to succeed, it’s easier to blame the hero for not being enough. That the hero will never be enough. And the media continuing to question Lando’s mentality and saying he doesn’t have the mentality of a world champion only eggs the hatred on.
It can be a cruel thing, to be the champion chosen. If you fail, you yourself become the villain the people wanted you to defeat.
If you read this post until the end, thanks for your time and effort, and don’t forget that my ask is open for opinions and discussions.
