Unleashing Norris: Which team suits Lando's F1 world title ambitions?

I was watching at Chapel, taking what you might say was a Busman’s Holiday to experience the grand prix with my two sons. We’d watched and lapped up the support races, marvelled at the Red Arrows and chuckled at Damian Lewis’s lounge lizard rendition of the national anthem. Now as the anticipation built, just how likely would it be that the two McLaren drivers could keep their ends up following their astonishing qualifying performances? I must admit, we were not exactly optimistic. They’d just fall backwards, wouldn’t they?

Nope. There was Norris, appearing on the horizon into Maggotts for the first time, leading his home grand prix as if he was born to it (which perhaps he was). No one, Lando included, could expect it to last. Red Bull’s superiority, especially once DRS was enabled, was always going to empower Max Verstappen to sweep past. But from our vantage point, what impressed us was how planted the McLarens looked through the glorious Becketts sweeps – as Hamilton later remarked – and how Verstappen struggled to drop them. He was made to sweat, as indicated by his ruffled radio message about his car feeling “strange”. For the MCL60s, what a transformation from their frankly woeful form at the start of the year. So apparently you can still develop yourself out of trouble under a budget cap.

How Norris responded to Hamilton’s hunt following the safety car interlude was equally heartening. The Mercedes had a tyre advantage and we held our breath as the seven-time champion got that run out of Luffield, fearing what might occur at Copse. But not this time… Norris had the quicker car under him and once his hard-compound Pirellis had come in he was away. And his defence had been unimpeachable. What a feel-good performance and another British Grand Prix that left a happy after-glow, even it seems for Hamilton.

For Norris and Piastri, expectations remain in check for the next round at the Hungaroring, given the stark contrast to Silverstone’s sweeps and McLaren’s weaknesses in slow-speed corners. But then comes Spa before the summer break, so perhaps this heartening unlocking of unlikely form might not prove a one-off. Whatever comes next, both McLaren drivers have made their point, with style and in Norris’s case with his endearing good humour.

So what’s next for him, and why do I reckon the F1 world is at his feet? Norris is tied to McLaren until the end of 2025, so he has two more seasons to assess whether McLaren under Andrea Stella has the genuine means and depth to climb back into its super-power territory of now ancient history. Sunday sure was impressive – but can that defiantly independent approach really reap the grand prix wins and world titles Norris is clearly capable of? He’s got it in him. But where does he need to be to unlock it?

Norris is loyal. Perhaps he’ll judge there’s nowhere else better for him and become a one-team driver. Then again, that’s rare… and clearly he’d be a major scoop for any team on the grid. Any team. So his options should be wide open. The middle of 2025, the latest time by which he’ll need to make a decision, seems a long way off. But it’s not.

Picture Norris in a Honda-powered Aston Martin, once Fernando Alonso – approaching his mid-40s by then – has finally called it quits. Picture him in a Mercedes, as heir to a 40-year-old Hamilton. Or a Ferrari. Or at the heart of an Audi team run by his old McLaren chief Andreas Seidl with whom he gelled so well. Or in a Ford-backed Red Bull.

That latter option is an intriguing one. Christian Horner and Adrian Newey don’t need him when they’ve got Verstappen – do they? Or is the sharpest team on the grid really satisfied to build its future around one figure and employ a solid number two for ever after? History suggests the ‘two bulls in one field’ scenario only ends one way and is too much trouble. And yet Verstappen and Norris would be a fascinating combo.

As we saw at Silverstone, they get on very well. Of course the dynamic would change if they were pitched together as team-mates – but Norris has a refreshing disposition and self-deprecating attitude, in contrast to Verstappen’s self-entitled razor edge, that might just allow two ‘box office’ stars to co-exist in the same space. I’d be amazed if the prospect isn’t at least a passing temptation for Horner and the impatient Helmut Marko who, as we have seen yet again this week, struggles to tolerate mediocrity.

The best part is that it feels like Norris has already been around a long time – because he has. He’s now into his fifth season and has a wealth of experience, in a slow-burn that might be reminiscent of Nigel Mansell’s Lotus days. But by the end of 2025 Norris will still only be 25 years old. At that tender age it can all be ahead of him.

So Lando, when the time comes, will it be stick or twist? In the build-up to the British GP Norris spoke about the heavy influence of watching Hamilton progress, and once again he might do well to take a leaf from the great man. Hamilton was older, at 27, when he made the call that would come to define his career and leave the bosom of McLaren to strike out somewhere fresh. It’s easy to forget that back in 2012 there were no guarantees Mercedes would become the shock-and-awe force of the hybrid era. There was an element of risk for Hamilton, as there always is when you make a major change in life. But Lewis had the courage and the nous to follow his instincts – and went from being a very good one-time world champion to the Galactico we know today.

A similar day of reckoning is on the horizon for Norris too – and what he chooses will likely define not only his own career, but potentially help shape the competitive F1 landscape in the second half of this decade. No pressure, son. Take your time.