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“I remember the first time I braked into Turn 1, my neck almost fell off,” Lando laughs, his neck now several sizes bigger than it was seven years ago, when he tested a modern Formula 1 car for the first time at the Hungaroring.

“My whole head collapsed forward, it was crazy,” he continues. “Budapest is a crazy-fast circuit, so it was a bit of an eye opener on one of your first days in Formula 1 – it was pretty special.”

Only 17 years old at the time, Lando was just 12 races into his 2017 title-winning European Formula 3 campaign. He’d already won twice and taken a further six podiums, his star was on the rise.

Conversely, McLaren, on the back of the Hungarian Grand Prix, were heading into summer shutdown midway through one of the most challenging seasons in our history. It had been a gruelling first 11 races. We sat ninth in the Constructors’ Championship and had scored just two points prior to that weekend.  

We mustered two top-10 finishes in Budapest, which offered a faint glimmer of hope in the doldrums. However, we still had just 11 points to show for our efforts, and no one was expecting a dramatic turnaround of form in the second half of the year.

The team remained as determined as ever but the mood was tired and downbeat, they desperately needed a break.

Before anyone could set off on their summer holidays, there were two more days of running to get through in Hungary. A necessary evil given the struggles of the MCL32, but two days they could probably have mentally done without. The sun certainly didn’t help. Even seven years on, some of the team clearly remember the “baking” Budapest heat, which peaked at an unpleasant 36 degrees.

The first of the two days was dedicated to then-driver Stoffel Vandoorne, in his debut season, and the second to a little-known prospect named Lando Norris…

The start of a new era

In the nadirs of such a difficult season, it’s unlikely to have occurred to them that this test might be looked back on as a sliding-door moment or the heralding of a new, more competitive era for McLaren.

For most of the team, this was their first experience with Lando, who had signed as a Test and Simulator Driver after winning the 2016 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.

By the time he arrived in Hungary for the test, he’d already visited the factory for a seat fitting and a run in the simulator, he’d also enjoyed a test at Portimão in the 2011 McLaren MP4-26, but with a different crew.

Was totally mega, Lando. 👊 https://t.co/eNpIL03uG2

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 3, 2017

“We'd heard about this young kid who we had on the books,” Will Joseph, Lando’s Race Engineer, recalls. “Those at the test in Portimão had reported back with some very positive feelings about this kid, but he could have been anyone… We didn’t have a recognised driver development programme at the time, and he hadn’t long joined, so we didn’t know too much about him.

“I remember him being incredibly small, incredibly young, and fairly quiet, but keen to get involved and get on with it."

Péter Ladocsi, who was working within the Racing Technology team, adds: “My first impression was that he looked very, very young. I definitely don’t remember him being nervous, but not overconfident either. He just looked at home."

First impressions count

By the time he took to the track for his Grand Prix debut in 2019, Lando had built up a strong bond with the garage and was heavily praised in his first season for how close he already was with his team.

He’d been fortunate to work with them ahead of his debut at tests and on Grand Prix weekends – he dovetailed his Formula 2 campaign with a Test and Reserve Driver role and competed in seven FP1 sessions – and he used this time wisely, developing working relationships that have become friendships in the years since.

Lando adds: “I remember that this test was one of my first days with Will, who is still my Race Engineer, and Jarv, who is still my Performance Engineer. So, it feels like we've been on this whole journey together from the very, very beginning.”

As with anyone starting a new job, this doesn’t come easily, it takes time and effort – especially when you’re a teenager with the eyes of the world on you. Not all drivers prioritise or see a benefit to this, but Lando put the work in because he realised it would pay off. He was even known to stay behind after tests and races to help with pack down.

“Lando has always had this attitude of wanting to be around and spend a lot of time with the mechanics and the engineers,” says Péter, now a Lead, Trackside Control Systems Engineer in the race team.

Mature for his age

That’s not to say that he was bouncing around the garage, chewing everyone’s ear off from day one. As Lando says himself, he was never the most confident growing up, but he was used to working as part of a team. At this stage of his fledging career, having rapidly climbed the junior formula ladder, Lando had never raced for the same team in the same series twice, so was accustomed to integrating himself within a new group.

They were usually much smaller than McLaren’s race team, though, consisting of 10 people or fewer.

“He certainly didn't arrive with any preconception as to who he was or an ‘I'm here, and I've made it’ stance,” says Will, who was Fernando Alonso’s Performance Engineer at the time. “He was humble, which I think is a testament to him and the group of people around him, who have always kept him very level-headed.”

Filippo Sapia, a Trackside Control Systems Engineer at the time, adds: “I was there to help prepare him for his first test and to explain how the car’s system works, the steering wheel, and things like that. He seemed quite mature. He didn’t act his age – you’d expect him to be a little over-excited, but he was just very keen to learn and enjoyed working with us. That isn’t true of every rookie who drives a car for the first time, so it definitely stood out.” 

On his rise through the ranks, Lando won titles in CIK-FIA KFJ European, CIK-FIA KFJ Super Cup, WSK Euro Series KFJ, CIK-FIA International Super Cup and World Karting Champions and made history by becoming the youngest karting world championship winner at 14 – an accolade previously held by Lewis Hamilton.  

He’d followed this up with titles in Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and the Toyota Racing Series Championship.  

Lando had enjoyed an exceptional, trophy-laden junior career, but he never carried an ego, and he never assumed his future was guaranteed. For all he knew, this test in Hungary could have been his one and only chance to drive a modern F1 car.

“I don't think you need to have this belief you're going to ‘make it’, I think that’s false,” Lando explains. “Until I signed my contract with McLaren in Monza in 2018, I never believed that I was going to be in Formula 1.

“I never felt like I needed to be confident, and I think what everyone says about having to believe you’re ‘going to be a Formula 1 driver’ is false and just made-up stuff. I just did the best I could at any given point in time, and if I went on to become a driver, then I did.

“I never had that belief and I am still in Formula 1, so I think that shows that you don’t have to do what everyone says – you don’t have to live your life the way everyone says. You can find your own way of doing things and find what works for you."

Putting in the hard yards

That same test in Hungary also famously included fellow future F1 stars Charles Leclerc and George Russell, and marked the return of Robert Kubica. Lando was among the standouts and set the second fastest time on Day 2 with a 1m17.384s - our quickest across the two days.

But as impressive as that was, the team wasn’t focused on his pace, rather the fact that his competence in the car was representative and allowed them to complete their full programme.

Given the tumultuous time we’d endured so far that season, this test was identified as a key opportunity to work through our issues and improve the car. Had Lando taken longer to get up to speed – if he had at all - the team would have lost valuable track time, collecting data that they couldn’t learn from.

On a hot day at the Hungaroring, Lando’s work was varied and included aerodynamic data gathering, set-up adjustments, some high-fuel longer runs, a focus on single-lap pace, and testing out a new suspension device.

“Whilst the driver is there to drive the car for their own benefit and progression, ultimately they’re there to test for us, and what’s important is that we get the results from that,” says Will. “We had our test programme that we needed to get through, regardless of who the driver was, and what you want is for that test to become relevant.

“I’ve looked back at the time progression, and the lap times always progress through the day, but his improvement was very quick. Very early in the day, we could see that we were able to get on with our programme. From that perspective, it was an impressive start.”

That’s not to say they didn’t pay any attention to his abilities in the car. Given the amount of mileage the Hungaroring had experienced during the Grand Prix, it would have been unfair to compare Lando’s time with those during any of that weekend’s sessions, but there are other ways in which they could judge his talents.

“I think we could see in his driving, and in the pace that was coming, that it was competitive,” Will continues. “There are a couple of the corners in Hungary where we were impressed by how committed he was to them so early on in the day.

“I was stepping into the role of Race Engineer at this test, so I was concentrated on executing the test, but I do remember there being people around me who were more focused on his development, and you were really getting the sense that they were impressed.”

Fabien Warnier, his No.1 Mechanic at the test in Hungary, adds: “He was getting very, very good feedback from the engineers. They were very confident of what he was capable of. He knew he had so much to learn, so he was listening, and he was focused."

Though it may pale in comparison to what he’s achieved since, this test was a huge milestone in Lando’s career. He had his family on the ground with him in support, and regardless of his future, this was a first real opportunity for Lando to influence and work closely with a Formula 1 team.

Through his work in the car, he was able to directly influence the team and play a role in the development of the MCL32 for the remainder of the season, and crucially, beyond.

“It was a long time ago, but I remember a lot of it,” Lando says. “I remember being very nervous. I remember being in the engineering truck in the morning, with so many things going on in my head. You could really smell the cars when they were fired up, with the types of fuel we were using then, so the smell of that every morning woke you up, so you were ready but nervous…

“There was some stuff I needed to test for Stoffel and Fernando [Alonso], and that is cool because you feel like there's a lot of responsibility on you doing your little part for the team. You are looking to give good feedback, to tell them what you liked and what you didn’t, what felt good and what didn’t, and that was the first proper sense of responsibility I had within McLaren, which was pretty cool.

“The rest of the test was just about getting to grips with a Formula 1 car. It’s such a big difference to Formula 2 and Formula 3, and everything I had done before, so you are just trying to complete laps and drive as quickly as you can – it was pretty cool.”

The age of social media

The team may have been treating this test as a professional data-gathering exercise, but for the media and fans, this was a chance to see a selection of young hotshots up close in F1 machinery.

“He's spent well over a decade honing his craft, rising up through the ranks, and this is his first time in an F1 car, it’s a massive moment and you definitely felt that in the air,” says Nikhil Patel, then a Digital Communications Executive in our Marketing department. “There were whispers at the time that he was going to be a top talent, so there was this anticipation and excitement to see what happened."

Along with Russell and Leclerc, Lando was part of a new generation of racing drivers who had grown up in the age of social media. By this stage of his career, he already had an online presence and had experience being interviewed, filmed, and photographed, but this was his first exposure to the F1 media in a racing scenario.

“I always felt like Lando very quickly understood why we were doing what we were doing, you didn’t need to explain why you were capturing content,” Nikhil, now Associate Director of Digital, continues. “Of course, the spotlight didn't shine on him as brightly in 2017 as it does now, but he adapted well to the attention that was on him. At the test, he was totally fine with the cameras and seemed used it. He’d have already been relatively media trained and he was certainly easy to work with.

“Even then, you just felt like he was a star, like he was going to be something. It’s quite hard to quantify that feeling, but you just look at someone: the way they speak, how they carry themselves, and how other people speak about them, and you just know that they’re going to be a star…”

Seven years on from one of the most challenging years in our history, we’re back amongst the elite, enjoying our most successful season in a decade, second in the standings and challenging for the World Championship. Lando has been a constant on this journey, rising from prodigy to Formula 1 race winner.  

“… And obviously, he’s gone on to become a star.”