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Lando Norris' facetious demeanor, spontaneous responses to journalists or mocking posts on social media are a breath of fresh air for Formula 1. But F1i's Andrew Lewin reflects on whether the McLaren driver is simply having too much fun to ever be considered as a serious contender for race wins and the world championship?
If you look up who was the rookie of the year in 2019, the official F1 records will tell you that the honour went to Red Bull's Alexander Albon. But that was purely based on championship points: when the fans themselves put the matter to a vote, the answer was very different with over three quarters of all the votes cast going to McLaren's Lando Norris.
It's surely not surprising that Norris is as popular as he is with the fans. He brings something genuinely new to the grid, a lively and infectious sense of tongue-in-cheek fun crossed with a wide-eyed wonder and authentic amazement at having achieved his life's ambition of being an honest-to-God Grand Prix driver at such an early age.
©McLaren
His earnest, unguarded responses to journalists' questions and his own spontaneous, mocking and often facetious posts on social media are a joy to behold. It's a stark contrast to the older hands on the grid who have been media-trained to within an inch of their lives to ensure they weigh every word they say for any potential negative consequences for their team and sponsors.
Lando reminds us of the passion and excitement we felt for F1 when we first encountered the sport ourselves
As a result, Norris reminds many of us of the passion and excitement we felt for F1 when we first discovered and fell in love with the sport ourselves, whether that was back in the 50s, 60s, 70s or more recently. And yet at the same time, that sense that Lando is 'one of us' - a true fan of the sport - also makes many doubt whether deep down he has what it takes to be a future race winner, let alone a future world champion following in the footsteps and wheel tracks of his compatriot Lewis Hamilton.
Is he simply enjoying himself too much to be a serious contender? Shouldn't he be more driven and determined about everything like the sombre, glum-faced Max Verstappen? Does he crucially lack the ruthless killer instinct of Charles Leclerc, the man often described as 'the baby faced assassin' of motor sport?
