At the age of 22, most Formula 1 drivers are still fighting to establish themselves on the grid – that is if they’ve even reached the pinnacle of motorsport to begin with.
So when McLaren presented Lando Norris with a multi-year contract extension worth tens of millions of pounds before season had even started, it was a seismic vote of confidence in the then-22-year-old’s abilities. And throughout 2022, Norris proved that he was worth every penny of McLaren’s investment in him.
A new era of Formula 1 offered a wealth of opportunities for Norris and McLaren. But as they prepared for the first round of the season in Bahrain, it was in the knowledge that their car had a fundamental problem.
With their brakes overheating far too easily, both Norris and team mate Daniel Ricciardo had no chance of challenging for points. Instead, the pair had to settle for 14th and 15th, with Norris following his team mate home after a well-timed Safety Car helped Ricciardo jump ahead.
But any fears that McLaren were in for a truly painful 2022 season were dispelled just a week later in Jeddah. Norris was less than half a tenth away from reaching Q3 at just the second attempt of the season and ran in the top ten throughout the race. He only just missed out on sixth place by less than a tenth after a final lap battle with Esteban Ocon, but seventh meant Norris and McLaren would return home from the opening two rounds with more points than they would have expected.
When they arrived in Melbourne, McLaren were on top of their braking troubles. Around an Albert Park circuit notorious for heavy braking zones, Norris unquestionably made the most of his car by securing a second row start in fourth, ahead of the two Mercedes. In the race, he brought the car home in fifth ahead of Ricciardo – aided by his team mate agreeing not to attack Norris in the closing laps as he ran low on fuel.
Imola came next. In qualifying, Norris committed his first mistake of the season. He slid off the slippery track in Q3 at Acque Minerali, but ironically secured himself third on the grid in the sprint race by doing so. Despite limited running in second practice, he took fifth on the grid in the grand prix, then he beat Charles Leclerc on the run down to turn one at the start. When Leclerc eventually got ahead of him, Norris was unable to keep pace with the Ferrari and two Red Bulls ahead – but he was also well out of reach of everyone else behind. Leclerc’s spin late in the race handed Norris third place: He cruised over the remaining laps to take a brilliant, unexpected and richly deserved podium finish.
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In typical Norris style, he downplayed his Imola achievement due to the problems that had befallen both Ferraris in the race. But he would have perhaps appreciated it more had he known it would be the only time the entire season that any driver outside Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes would stand on the podium – making it one of the most outstanding results of the year. Sadly, Norris was given a hard dose of reality the next round in Miami, retiring after a collision with the wounded AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly on the back straight.
With upgrades coming for Barcelona, Norris should have had plenty to look forward to for the Spanish Grand Prix. However, when he arrived, he immediately began to feel ill. After being excused from media duties on Thursday by his team, Norris’s participation in the race seemed under genuine threat after he was diagnosed with tonsillitis. But despite his illness, he was determined to race.
Norris could have reached Q3 had his last lap time not been deleted for running too wide at turn 12, but from 11th on the grid he did a remarkable job on race day. Combating his low energy levels and the scorching Spanish heat, Norris did not let his physical state cost him any time on the track, rising up the order to drive to eighth place at the finish – four places ahead of his team mate. An exhausted Norris later admitted it had been one of the hardest races he’d ever endured.
But there was little recovery time for Norris as Monaco beckoned just days later. After putting his fitness level at around “90-percent”, he promptly stuck his McLaren fifth on the grid to secure ‘best of the rest’ once again. In the race, he lost only one position to George Russell in a neck-and-neck race out of the pits. Thanks to Fernando Alonso holding up half of the pack over the second half of the race, Norris had enough time to pit and take the fastest lap of the race on his way to sixth place. Over a two-race stretch battling tonsillitis, Norris had scored 14 points while Ricciardo had finished outside the top ten both times.
By the time Baku rolled around, Norris was back to full strength. However, he didn’t appear to quite have the same race pace as Ricciardo around the street circuit and likely would have been passed by his team mate in the early laps had team orders not kept him ahead. By the end of the race, the roles were reversed, but this time it was Norris ordered to hold position. He duly crossed the line behind his team mate for only the first time since Bahrain.
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At Silverstone, he secured another ‘best of the rest’ grid position of sixth and should have gained one position in the race except for a far too late call to pit under Safety Car that dropped him behind Alonso. In Austria, he again should have finished one place higher than he did – a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits four times proving costly after he finished fewer than three seconds behind Mick Schumacher.
Norris’s qualifying heroics continued in France where he split the two Mercedes to line up fifth on the grid, taking seventh in the race after losing out to Alonso at the start. Then at the next round in Hungary, he was the fastest qualifier outside the top three teams yet again – this time equalling his best starting position of the year in fourth. Although he fell to seventh at the finish of the race, he was once more the first driver in a midfield car to reach the chequered flag.
Heading into the summer break, McLaren were just four points behind Alpine in fourth place in the constructors’ championship on 95 – with 76 of the team’s haul courtesy of Norris. After a frustrating race stuck in traffic at Spa after a power unit penalty, Norris was right back in the hunt in Zandvoort, taking his customary grid slot as best of the midfield. He may have been beaten by Alonso in the race, but seventh place was still 10 positions ahead of his team mate, who was about to get his P45.
After another six points in Monza, Norris arrived in Singapore with a range of updated parts on his car. He made full use of them through a long and difficult race, passing Alonso at the start and maintaining a strong pace to take fourth – realistically the best result possible on the day and over half a minute ahead of his team mate behind him. Suddenly, McLaren were back with a realistic chance of fighting for fourth in the constructors’ championship against Alpine – even if 100 of the team’s 129 points belonged to Norris.
He secured another ‘best of the rest’ finish at Circuit of the Americas by catching and passing Alonso on the penultimate lap while Ricciardo endured possibly his worst performance of the season. Norris had to settle for ninth in Mexico as the hard tyres proved to be wrong compound for the race and McLaren’s hopes of securing fourth in the championship all but died in Brazil when he retired with a car problem late in the race – although only after earning a penalty for hitting Leclerc while they battled for third after the Safety Car restart.
But Norris signed off his deeply impressive season with another formidable performance in Abu Dhabi that encapsulated his year. He took seventh on the grid behind the top three teams for the final time, then passed Russell at the start to run in sixth in the early laps. Using a two-stop strategy, Norris ran in seventh before picking up sixth when Lewis Hamilton retired late on, holding off Ocon in the closing laps to take a minor victory over the Alpine as well as the bonus point for fastest lap in the process.
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Although McLaren had been unable to beat their rivals to fourth place at the end of the season, there was little more Norris could have done to change that. Over the course of the season, he had been the highest qualifying driver not from the top three teams eight times and the highest finishing driver not from the top three teams a further eight times – comfortably more often than any other midfield driver.
His sole podium in Imola stuck out as a unique achievement in the midfield and despite Alpine beating McLaren, Norris ended the season 30 points clear of Ocon and 41 points ahead of Alonso in the drivers’ championship. He had committed fewer mistakes than many of those ahead of him in the standings. Norris had not just been the outstanding driver of the midfield teams – he had been one of the most outstanding drivers of the entire grid.
With team principal Andreas Seidl departing the team to spearhead Audi’s entry into F1, work improving McLaren’s resources continuing at their factory and an exciting rookie team mate in Oscar Piastri joining McLaren in 2023, the years ahead for the team offer great promise. Should they manage to bridge the chasm to the front of the field, they will have full confidence that they will be able to compete against the best with a driver like Lando Norris in their car.
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