Lando Norris has revealed that, as he was figuring out his path into motorsport at a young age, his dad told him that his quadbike was stolen. This, however, was a lie, as he had sold the vehicle, deeming it ‘too dangerous’ for his son to play with. The current Formula One vice-champion is the son of Adam Norris, who co-owned Hargreaves Lansdown and has a net worth of £200million.
This financial backing helped him en route to the pinnacle of open-wheel racing, but Norris Jnr initially had other ideas for his motorsport journey. During the summer break, Norris spoke at the Esports World Cup. He was asked about his recently acquired motorbike license. “You know what, I would love to do motorbike stuff,” he responded.
“That’s actually where I started. I did horse riding, I hated that. Quad biking, my dad sold it – he said it got stolen, he just sold it because it was too dangerous for me. Then, I went to motocross. So I loved dirt motorsport – motorbikes, motocross, quad bikes. I love all of that before I ever watched Formula One or any sort of road racing or anything.
“I was like, for me, buggies and deserts, this is the coolest stuff in the world. So that’s actually what I wanted to do before everything, but then motorbikes was kind of where a lot of my love started. My hero was Valentino Rossi, that kind of thing.”
Now, Norris has the opportunity to become an F1 world champion in his mid-twenties. The Brit is wrapped up in a tense Drivers’ Championship fight with team-mate Oscar Piastri, with the duo separated by nine points heading into the final 10 rounds of the 2025 campaign.
Norris kicked off the year with a dominant victory at the Australian Grand Prix, but struggled during the early stages of the season. He won just one of the nine races that followed his triumph in Melbourne.
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However, heading into the summer break, he turned the screw on Piastri, clocking up victories in Austria, Great Britain and Hungary to cut down his rival’s advantage. Despite having a World Championship on the line, though, Norris has no plans to change his approach and get rough with his team-mate.
“I don’t enjoy that,” he said in Hungary. “In 200 years, no one is going to care. We’ll all be dead. I am trying to have a good time. I still care about it, and that’s why I get upset sometimes, and I get disappointed, and I get angry at myself.
“And I think that shows just how much I care about winning and losing. But that doesn’t mean I need to take it out on Oscar. I just don’t get into those kinds of things.”
