Lando Norris meets the Red Roses

What happens when a World Champion meets World Champions? You get a meeting of minds, an exchange of lessons for success, and an insight into what it takes to climb to the top of the world – with the ambition of staying there too.

Lando Norris, of course, reached the zenith in 2025, claiming his first Formula 1 World Championship in emotional scenes at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. England’s women’s Rugby Union team, affectionately known as the Red Roses, also tasted success in 2025, lifting the Women’s Rugby World Cup. It was the third such success for the Red Roses, achieved on home soil at Twickenham Stadium, just up the road from the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.

Four of the Women’s Rugby World Cup-winning Red Roses visited the McLaren Technology Centre, with Tatyana Heard, Abby Dow, Megan Jones, and Claudia Moloney MacDonald undertaking a tour of the factory, exploring different departments, and meeting a variety of team members, from Car Design and Race Engineering to Commercial. There was also a pit-stop challenge, where, naturally, their competitive instincts took over.

The Red Roses’ visit to the factory coincided with an engineering day for Lando, who headed over to say hi shortly after the quartet had completed their pit stops.

“Motivation is different for everyone,” Lando suggests, with the conversation naturally focusing on the psychological aspect of elite sport, starting with what drives them in the biggest moments.

“As a driver, maybe it is something from your engineer, a message on the radio. Or it could be reminding yourself of the tougher times, or the best times, such as podiums and wins – it’s different for everyone. For me, it is probably my engineer telling me to get a move on!”

A driver has a whole team around him, though operates singularly inside the cockpit, whereas a rugby team always has 15 players on the pitch together.

“That is similar to us - our captain, giving us a speech, with some passion,” says Jones, before the topic shifts towards how best to build trust within a team, while cultivating a championship-winning mentality.

“Honesty and curiosity, I think,” says Jones, with which Lando agrees. “You should be curious about each other, because the more you know, the better you can be as a team, in terms of how best to give and receive information and that sort of thing.”

Dow interjects to agree that “allowing everyone to be relaxed and themselves” is a huge factor: “if you’re yourself, you can help each other,” she follows up, adding that small tweaks, individually, can contribute to the greater good.

Focusing on breathing techniques, ensuring you’re hydrated, and even getting into the right frame of mind first thing in the morning by making your bed were among the small efforts highlighted by the Red Roses that could make a subtle yet crucial difference.

And while Rugby Union and Formula 1 are very different sports, there is unity in the mental demands required in order to operate at the top.

Lando and the Red Roses have both climbed their respective mountains to collect the ultimate prize – in Lando’s case, the Formula 1 World Championship he dreamed about as a child. And for the Red Roses, it was the Rugby World Cup, not to mention a record unbeaten streak and a current run of seven successive Six Nations titles. Remaining atop that summit can often be as big a task as reaching it in the first place, and ensuring never to rest on your laurels.

“We talk about why we do it,” Jones says. “We share that a lot. It helps you to connect with each other, and it pushes you further than you’d expect – the bigger purpose of why you do it.”

Adds Moloney-MacDonald: “I’m quite goal-oriented, so it’s thinking about what I’m aiming for. If I remind myself of what I’m aiming for, I get myself excited to go again, it doesn’t matter how tough the journey is.”

Whether it was the Red Roses coming up through the various development pathways in Rugby Union, or Lando rising the ranks in junior formula, each of the five began their journeys somewhere.

“You need honesty, right?” says Lando when asked what advice he would offer for anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps. “For me, I think you’ve got to start by saying it’s not going to be easy. When you’re young, you never know what is truly needed to achieve that goal, as you only ever see the final product. Again, everyone is different, but I think it almost helps to start with the harder parts, explaining that it isn’t going to be easy.”

Through any journey to the top, there are natural highs and lows – the wins and the purple patches are counterbalanced by the inevitable setbacks and the tougher moments. And the Red Roses were keen to know what the biggest challenge Lando Lando encountered on his pathway to Formula 1 was.

“Just before you get to Formula 1, that’s when you’re old enough and mature enough to start to properly consider the biggest picture,” Lando explains. “When you’re young, you always fill yourself more with positivity than negativity, but as you get older, you start to really question whether you will make it. It’s at that point you then begin to ask yourself about what happens if you don’t, and those are tough, but important, conversations to have with yourself. So yeah, honestly, that year before you make it to Formula 1 is a tricky one, because it’s when things get more real.

“But then, every year brings new challenges – you just have to embrace those and learn how best to tackle them.”