That is according to Nate Saunders, author of the new book Lando Norris: Road to World Champion, which charts the Briton’s journey through a tense, multi-way title fight and positions him as the sport’s first true champion of the Drive to Survive generation.
Speaking to Speedcafe, Saunders described Norris as a figure who represents a shift in what a Formula 1 champion looks like, both on and off the track.
“I think he’s probably the first world champion we’ve ever seen who’s been so open with his vulnerabilities,” Saunders explained.
“I think Formula 1 as a paddock is very critical and sceptical of weakness in any form. Whether it’s engineering weakness. Mental weakness. Whatever it is.
“And Lando, for better or worse, is very open about that.”
That openness became a defining thread of the 2025 season, which saw Norris locked in a fierce intra-team battle with Oscar Piastri while also fending off the late charge of Max Verstappen.
The campaign swung dramatically at times, with momentum shifting between the McLaren drivers before culminating in a pressure-filled finale in Abu Dhabi.
Saunders believes that volatility only strengthened Norris’ connection with fans.
“I think that’s where there is a real relatability with Lando,” he said.
“I think, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but when you look at Max or Lewis [Hamilton] or even [Sebastian] Vettel and Fernando Alonso, I don’t know if they’re as relatable as Lando in the sense that you don’t feel like they’re going through a similar journey to what most of us do.
“Which is a bit of doubt, you know, the feeling that, oh, actually, I don’t know if I’m good enough to do this.
“And then when you do do it, you’re like, oh, I am actually good enough to do this.
“So I think there’s that human element which I think resonates with people.”
Saunders, who currently serves as an F1 writer for ESPN, said the book was conceived in real time as the season unfolded, having already begun compiling notes before being approached shortly after the Abu Dhabi finale to put it together.
What emerged is a race-by-race retelling of the 2025 championship, supported by more than 100 images and built around the narrative of a driver once labelled “Lando No-wins” completing his transformation into a world champion.
Saunders pointed to Norris’ step-by-step progression as key to understanding that journey.
“He is the kind of guy that doesn’t believe he can do something until he’s done it,” he said.
“So when he got his first pole, he was like, ‘oh, I can do that. It’s achievable’. Win, ‘oh I can do that’. Championship, the same thing.”
That gradual build also fed into one of the season’s most compelling storylines — Norris’ visible struggle with pressure at key moments.
Saunders recalled the Qatar Grand Prix as a turning point, where the weight of the title fight was clear.
“There were times last year when Lando really looked like he was overwhelmed by the pressure,” he explained.
“I was actually on the grid in Qatar. I think in Qatar, the ramifications were if he won the race, he won the title. And he was starting between Piastri and Verstappen.
“So the whole question was is he going to send one up the inside? As it turned out he kind of just let Max pass, and was like, ‘I don’t need to’. Which again, I think shows a degree of maturity.
“To some people it might have shown a weakness of, ‘oh you didn’t want to go for it’, but he didn’t need to.
“But on the grid before then, I’ve never seen a driver look so outwardly nervous as that.”
Yet by the time the title was sealed in Abu Dhabi, that tension had evaporated in the post-race press conference in a moment that underscored the very relatability Saunders sees as Norris’ defining trait.
“All of that kind of fell away from him in Abu Dhabi,” he said.
“And he was drinking that beer and he was giggling and laughing. It was great.”
That relatability, amplified by his presence in Drive to Survive, has helped Norris connect with a younger and more diverse audience, something Saunders views as a milestone for the sport.
“I think he’s the first kind of Drive to Survive era champion as well,” he said.
“So as kind of a milestone, as kind of a figure. Obviously Verstappen, but Verstappen was there before Drive to Survive.
“Norris kind of, his journey was, I think in season one he’s a fresh faced teenager who’s just been signed up to McLaren. So it feels like that era is kind of like coming through a little bit.
“I think it’s just good for that fan base to kind of have a champion as well. He’s a young champion. Gen Z champion. All that stuff.
“[It’s] kind of like a changing of the guard a little bit.”
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Saunders said he believed the shift is also evident in how Norris is perceived at home in Britain.
Despite joining a long line of British world champions, including Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button over the past two decades, Saunders believes Norris’ reception has been more complex.
“I do think that Britain still hasn’t fully embraced Lando Norris in the same way they embraced Lewis for example,” he said.
“Lando is polarising in the UK. I know there’s this idea of British bias, which I think I can see where that comes from for sure.
“But the Brits, we are ultimately, I always joke, we’re a very self-hating nation. And there’s a lot of people, that we hold our athletes to really high standards.
“And there’s, I won’t lie about it either, there’s a class element to the UK and culture that doesn’t exist everywhere else.
“Lando is from an incredibly privileged background. I think a lot of people naturally hold that against him.”
Even so, Saunders said there were signs during the 2025 season that sentiment was beginning to shift, particularly at Silverstone.
“In terms of last year, it did seem like that started to shift a bit,” he explained.
“Silverstone, you could tell the atmosphere around a British winner that wasn’t Lewis was different.
“We’d seen Lewis win… it didn’t feel being there like it was as seismic as some of Lewis’s wins. But it felt different.
“The fan base in the Lando Norris stand was a lot more diverse. Women. Younger people in there.
“It doesn’t mean it’s better or worse. It just felt different.”
That sense of difference sits at the heart of Saunders’ book, which he described as his fastest project to date and his third overall, following previous works on Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari.
For Saunders, who has followed Norris since his early days in Formula 1, the story ultimately reflected a broader evolution within the sport.
“He said I did it my way, which I write about in the book,” Saunders said.
“And I was like, he’s not just quoting Frank Sinatra here… but it was true. He did win it his way. And his way wasn’t the tried and tested conventional way either.”
Published by Michael O’Mara Books, Lando Norris: Road to World Champion is available now.
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