Read time: 8 minutes

Speak to any driver, and they’ll tell you their current season is the most important of their career. That’s certainly true for those climbing the junior racing ladder.

Competing on Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends in front of bumper, sell-out crowds, Ella Lloyd and Ella Stevens are preparing for their second and first F1 Academy campaigns, respectively, just two tiers below Formula 1. Every year is crucial for a young driver, but the closer you get to the top, the higher the stakes.

One driver who knows all about the make-or-break intensity of climbing the single-seater pyramid is our reigning F1 World Champion Lando Norris, who was regarded as one of motorsport’s brightest young prodigies during his time on the feeder series circuit.

Snapped up by McLaren in 2017 as a 17-year-old on the back of winning two Formula Renault 2.0 titles, Lando delivered a European Formula 3 Championship in his first season with the team’s Driver Development Programme. He followed that with a runner-up finish in the 2018 Formula 2 Championship before making the step up to Formula 1 in 2019.

During his rise through the ranks, Lando was able to learn from then-McLaren driver Fernando Alonso, a two-time F1 World Champion. Our current Driver Development Programme members benefit from that same access to our senior drivers.

Ahead of the F1 Academy opener this weekend in China, McLaren Development Drivers Ella Lloyd and Ella Stevens sat down with Lando to discuss the season ahead, including how to deal with pressure, find a routine that works for you, and why it’s important to celebrate your wins.

Ella Lloyd: What can you remember from your first time racing on an F1 weekend?

Lando Norris: My first time racing on an F1 weekend would have been in Formula 2, Bahrain 2018. I was nervous, of course, but excited. I am always excited for the beginning of the year. I was confident going into the season because testing had gone well – I was confident that I had prepared properly. I had done my gym work, I’d done my sim work, so I thought that I was as prepared as possible, which I think is the most important thing. And, it was a very good first weekend. You?

Ella Lloyd: There was a lot of media involved, especially with F1 Academy, so there was a little bit of pressure, but I enjoyed it.

Lando: Did you feel nervous because of the pressure, or excited because of the pressure?

Ella Lloyd: A bit of both. I think I am always a bit nervous. And your first race on an F1 weekend is a big deal – there are loads of fans - but you’ve got to turn that into a positive and try to get a good result.

Ella Stevens: What advice were you given during that period that has stayed with you?

Lando: Because of all of the eyes on you across a race weekend, it is easy to get caught up in what others might be thinking - how they might be judging you, looking at you - but you’re in the position you’re in for a reason, so it is just to focus on yourself.

Try to forget about everyone else, focus on what you are doing, and what your engineers and your team are doing. Focus on what you can control, and forget about everything else. Feel comfortable, feel confident. Go out and drive naturally, because that's probably when you are at your quickest.

Ella Lloyd: Yeah. I would agree with that. You go faster when you're just having fun and driving.

Lando: When I started Formula 1, I was nervous. I felt a lot of pressure – it’s the biggest stage, so it’s not wrong to feel these things, but if I could go back, I would try to care less about the outside world. Not because you don’t have any respect for it, but because it has nothing to do with what you are doing in that moment, it cannot help to improve your race.

As you gain experience, you will learn what suits you. So, for me, I didn’t enjoy doing warm-ups before a session. Before a race, I like to have a nap and listen to my music. I’ve learnt what I like to eat before a session, and what I don’t like to eat, what I like to drink, and what I don’t like to drink. Along the way, I’ve found the little things that make me feel comfortable.

Ella Stevens: As you've gained experience, how has your ability to handle pressure evolved?

Lando: Acknowledge it and try to turn it into excitement. I think that good pressure is excitement, it’s when the lights are coming on, or you’re about to start your Qualifying lap. When you feel prepared, and you know what you’ve got to go out and do, you can go out and enjoy the pressure, rather than worry about it.

Bad pressure is when you’re not prepared – you haven’t prepared for your Qualifying laps, or you haven’t gone through your notes.

So now, I look forward to the pressure. I’m excited for lights out and to feel that the pressure is on, because if I have prepared, I’ve got nothing to worry about.

Ella Lloyd: How did you figure out what was best for you, in terms of preparation?

Lando: Everyone needs a good team around them. I’m lucky that I’ve always had very good people around me to give me a kick when I need it – to help push me to train hard, to eat good food, to go to sleep on time. It’s hard to do everything alone, and I’m still not great with half of these things, so I think it’s very important to have a good team around you. A trainer, a manager, parents, whoever that might be, who cares for you and has your best interests at heart. If they have the same ambition as you, the same love and respect for it, then they’ll help you out and be there to support you when you need them – whether that’s to tell you when you should or shouldn’t do something. I’ve learnt that’s very important…

I’ve also learnt that I don’t like getting hot and sweaty before races or before a session, so I won’t go and do a massive warm-up. I will stretch and make sure I’m not going to injure my neck, but I’m not going to go boxing or something too crazy. I like to be chilled – the more relaxed I am, the better I will do. But others are different to that. Do you prefer something more chilled or…?

Ella Lloyd: I only do a little warm-up. Bit of skipping, some resistance bands, reaction work – but I don’t like to do too much.

Ella Stevens: I'm pretty much the same. A bit of skipping and some stretches. I don't really want to sweat before I'm even getting in the car.

Lando: It's not nice, is it?

You learn with time what does and doesn’t matter for you – what gets you in the zone, and what doesn’t. For me, I put my helmet on, and that is when I feel in the zone. But when I don’t have my helmet on, I find it kind of hard to completely get in the zone. Before that point, I am pretty chilled, but as soon as my helmet is on, everything else is gone – it’s just my notes, my brake markers, that type of thing, and then I am good to go.

Ella Stevens: How do you reset after a difficult weekend, and how do you stay grounded after a good result?

Lando: You’ve got to accept that it is never going to always go your way. There are times when you will make mistakes, which is completely normal and completely acceptable, or you might get taken out by someone else, which has nothing to do with you. The most important thing is to try to understand what went wrong, why, and how you can improve.

People always say, you learn a lot more from your mistakes and your failures, than you do from winning. So, make sure you sit down with your engineer, your driver coach, and figure out why you were struggling at a specific track or a certain corner, and learn from the weekends that don’t go as well.

And how do you stay grounded after a win? I don’t think you should completely – you have to enjoy these times because they are rare. Not many people in the world get to win races or be on the podium, and life is short, so you’ve got to enjoy it – spend it with your friends, or whoever you want to [celebrate] with.

But then, at some point, take a step back and work out whether there was anything you could have done better – whether that is with your tyre degradation, your overtakes, there are always things to learn, even when you’ve won. And that, I think, automatically keeps you grounded, as does your team around you. I always celebrate with my team, and they are the same people who will also tell me to get back to work, to focus, and to look ahead to the next weekend.

Ella Stevens: Finally, what's your biggest piece of advice for us heading into the new season?

Lando: Toughest question till last… Preparation. If you’re worried about anything right now, it’s probably because you could have prepared more. With me, it seems to be the case that if I am worried about things – Qualifying, a race, tyre degradation, it’s probably because I haven’t prepared properly or looked into it as much as I should have done. So preparation is key, and then, to just enjoy it.

Even when it doesn’t go your way, you have to see the good things that come out of it. That hasn’t always been the case for me. Sometimes, I get very annoyed, but you’ve got to remind yourself that these are the times when you learn the most, and that you love it. That creates a good cycle for me.

For me, the cycle is: the better I do, the more I enjoy it - the more I enjoy it, the harder I want to work for it, the more I want to prepare – the harder I work and more I prepare, the better I do, the more I enjoy it. It’s not an easy cycle to get in, but it’s a good cycle to get in. And hopefully, that leads to great results, to wins and podiums and everything.

So, prepare, get into a good cycle of enjoying it and wanting to do better, and celebrate your wins.

And finally, just relax. Relax, enjoy it, and have fun. Because it’s your first season, right? So I guess you are feeling a little bit of everything? Nervous, excited, all of it? What are you looking forward to the most?

Ella Stevens: Well, my first race is going to be my first ever Grand Prix, I've never been to one, so that's really exciting.

Lando: Oh, so you’ve never been to one, and now you're going straight in?

Ella Stevens: Yep… I'm diving into it.

Lando: That's pretty cool. You'll learn a lot.

Ella Stevens: It’s more exciting that I get to be there and experience [a Grand Prix weekend] for the first time, and be able to race on that race weekend.

Lando: Well, we'll be cheering you on, don't you worry! How about you, excited?

Ella Lloyd: I am feeling excited. At the start of last year, I was more nervous, but now, because I’ve had a year under my belt and I know more of the tracks, I am feeling pretty confident.

Lando: Amazing. Well, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure to chat. See you in China.

Ella Lloyd: Good luck with the season.

Lando: Thank you very much.