Lando Norris opens up on McLaren award that transformed his racing career
Lando Norris has reflected on how winning the 2016 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award led to a simulator role that helped launch his long-term relationship with McLaren
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images
World champions don't usually point back to a single afternoon in a simulator as the moment everything changed. Lando Norris does. And in a new video on McLaren's YouTube channel, he's explained exactly how that happened.
It started with the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award - a prize set up in 1989 to reward and recognise promising young racing drivers from the United Kingdom. Here, he followed in the footsteps of Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Dario Franchitti. Certainly not bad company.
Norris entered the 2016 edition at the young age of 16.
"Joining McLaren all started with winning the BRDC award. The McLaren BRDC award then, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the UK. And they get the top four, five, six drivers to do a competition, and they try and see - let's say - who's the next rising star of Britain.
"And I managed to win, and winning the award was driving a Formula 1 car for a day, and was also becoming a fully paid sim driver for McLaren."
This set his relationship with the Woking team in motion. But it was his time on the simulator that allowed him to build key relationships within the F1 team as he continued to fight through the junior categories.
He joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme in February 2017, with Zak Brown calling him "a fabulous prospect". His first F1 race weekend followed the next year as he made his debut in FP1 of the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix.
At the Autosport Awards in January 2026, he received the inaugural Autosport Champion award, recognising his journey from winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2016 all the way to becoming world champion.
"My hope for the future... I think for anyone to get to drive for McLaren at any point is cool. And I love it here. They gave me the opportunity to come into Formula 1 as a young driver... so I feel like I owe a lot back to McLaren. I feel lucky enough that I am in Formula 1 and I get to drive in Formula 1, and that's my job somehow."
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