Formula 1 fan-favorite Lando Norris has ended Max Verstappen’s reign on top of the podium at the Miami Grand Prix.
On Sunday, May 5, Norris crossed the chequered flag in bright orange to take home a victory for McLaren. This was Lando Norris’ 110th attempt at overcoming Verstappen, and he did so with a clean drive.
Lando Norris was born on November 11th, 1999, making him 24, fairly young for a Formula 1 driver. The Bristol, England-born driver is of Belgian and British descent and races for McLaren under the British flag. When he was 15, he won the direct-drive Karting World Championship and moved on to Formula E. After a successful karting career, he worked up to his dream of racing in motorsport when he joined McLaren’s Young Driver Program and won the Formula 3 Championship in 2017.
One year later he got promoted to race in Formula 2 among drivers like George Russell, who we now see racing on the F1 grid. Norris had his Formula 1 debut in 2019 alongside [then] teammate Carlos Sainz racing for McLaren. Since then, Norris has proved himself as a strong competitor and a podium contender when given the right car and flawless strategy. He achieved his first pole position in drying conditions at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, would lead the race for several laps, but ultimately lost to Formula 1 golden boy Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s main driver who is from Denmark, has been a reigning champion for the past couple of seasons. According to the Red Bull Racing website, during Verstappen’s time at Red Bull, he has obtained 103 podiums, 2722.5 points, three World Championships, and 58 1st place podium positions. But that hasn’t stopped teams like McLaren from pushing their drivers to take him down, and Zac Brown, team principal at McLaren, would be successful on May 5.
The Miami Grand Prix was first introduced in 2022 and is on a ten-year contract. The circuit is 5.412 km, and the race consists of a total of 57 laps around the track.
The race began with a shaky start for the two Red Bull’s with Verstappen nearly being hit by his teammate Sergio Perez into turn one. On lap four, Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri overtook Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to move into P2, with Norris still in 6th place. On lap 20 Charles Leclerc made a pit stop in the Ferrari which left room for Norris to move up to P4.
The real shift in the race came in lap 21 when race leader Max Verstappen hit a stake that stuck out of the ground on one of the turns. Verstappen then had to pit-stop, pushing Piastri into 1st and Norris into 3rd.
On Lap 28 with Piastri (McLaren) and Sainz (Ferrari) in the pit lane, Norris finally moved up to P1. Later in lap 28 Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) ran Logan Sergeant (Williams) off the track, and the safety car got deployed, giving Norris the upper hand. With the extra time he had because of the safety car, McLaren called Norris into the pit lane to put on a fresh set of hard tires.
On the restart, Norris did some superb driving to defend his 1st place against the world champion Verstappen, marking a historic day for Norris and the McLaren team. The podium following the race was Lando Norris (McLaren) in 1st, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) in 2nd, and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in 3rd.
Chase Livingston, a senior from Westerly, R.I., thinks that Lando Norris is “very deserving” of this win.
“It’s cool to see because he has worked so hard, raced so many times, and never gotten a win,” he said. “It was nice to see how happy all the other drivers were for him, especially Verstappen.”
Katya Krasnovskaya, a senior from Russia, was ecstatic about Norris’ win.
“I was so happy when Lando won, he has been so close so many times,” she said. “When he finally won it felt so special, especially because it was his first.”
Katya believes that McLaren’s fight will inspire other teams to do the same.
“I think Lando’s win definitely gives the other drivers motivation to work harder because he showed that it is possible to beat Verstappen,” she said.
With new F1 regulations in the works, Chase has hope for more McLaren and Norris wins in the future.
“Especially with the new regulations coming there could be a reset on the pecking order for teams,” he said. “McLaren may be able to overcome Red Bull’s massive gap between the rest of the grid in races to come.”
Senior Javier Barrera Gorostiza, perhaps, has the most realistic view on future races as he thinks that “Verstappen has too great of a dominance and the Red Bull car is way too good for the back of the grid to catch up.”
This past weekend at the Imola Grand Prix, Verstappen was victorious, but not without a fight. Norris came within a second of beating the Dutchman. According to the F1 app, Norris says he “needed one or two more laps” to catch up to Verstappen.
“Drive to Survive,” a show produced by Netflix, shows the behind-the-scenes of each race week. With season 7 set to release in 2025, Lando Norris’ win at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix will surely be an iconic episode.
