For Lando Norris' fifth birthday, his parents gifted him a small plastic quad bike, but had to take it away shortly after because he was taking corners too quickly. At the same age, Oscar Piastri's mum stopped playing chess with him when he became too competitive and kept beating her.    

Ask any of our drivers' parents, and they’ll share a similar story, but this experience isn’t exclusive to them. One team member can recall dragging their parents to the driving range every single day of the school holidays so they could beat their brothers’ longest drive. Another can remember throwing a strop because their best friend returned to school from the summer break taller than them.  

It’s what we refer to as the racing mindset. It’s nature and nurture: some are born with it, others develop it. For many of our team, it’s the reason they’re here today. They dreamt of working in motorsport and let nothing stop them from realising that ambition.  

The racing mindset describes those driven by a burning passion for competition, a relentless desire to push forward, innovate, compete, and be better every day. It could be as simple as racing to walk past a stranger on the street or as complex as achieving a Guinness World Record pit stop.  

It’s the voice inside your head that celebrates when you answer a question faster than your partner while watching a TV quiz show, the one that says you need new trainers for the parents vs children school sports day, but also the one that motivates you to go for the promotion at work.  

That’s what Never Stop Racing is all about.  

It’s the foundation with which Bruce McLaren started this team. “Life is measured in achievement, not in years alone,” he famously said. If any quote could sum up what Never Stop Racing means, it’s that. Bruce was a dreamer, an inventor and an engineer, but he was a driver first, and his racing mindset underpinned his success.

The greatest athletes in history, not just racing drivers, possess this mentality. Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Serena Williams, Usain Bolt. They stood out not just because of their remarkable talents but because they were willing to go the extra mile every time they stepped out onto the turf, the track, or the court.  

In motorsport, what separates the good from the great isn’t speed over one lap, it’s the ability to get the most out of every corner, in every race, season after season.  

That’s why it isn’t limited to the very elite of sport. History is filled with examples of people who outperformed their natural abilities and those who failed to make the most of their talents. Skill only gets you so far. It isn’t about showing up when it suits you or for the glory moments, it’s about giving your all every day of the week, in the biggest moments and the more mundane.  

According to Zak Brown, McLaren’s secret sauce is our people, and that’s because, whether they are at the track or in the factory, they pour their all into every task – no matter the conditions, the importance or the rewards on offer. We didn’t break the world record for a pit stop because we set out to do it on one specific occasion, we broke it because we practised consistently and put 100% into every single stop, whether it was in a race or a training drill. Our teams don’t just have one racer per car, they have a whole army of them. 

Never Stop Racing is an attitude anyone can have. Our drivers have it, our team have it and our fans have it. This weekend, thousands of you will stay up through the night to watch the Australian Grand Prix, while many others will travel miles to be there in person. That’s a racing mindset.  

Never Stop Racing is built on the belief that with determination, passion and imagination we can always go a bit further – and a bit faster. It’s an ethos that lives on and off the track. Now that you know, you’ll start to see it run through everything we do, but also in your own lives. This is your call to unlock your racing mindset.