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You can’t have a discussion about sports technology today without including athletes in that conversation. Their partnerships, investments and endorsements help fuel the space – they have emerged as major stakeholders in the sports tech ecosystem. The Athlete's Voice series highlights the athletes leading the way and the projects and products they’re putting their influence behind.
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McLaren driver Lando Norris holds the distinction as the youngest British racer to compete in Formula One when he debuted at age 19 in 2019. That followed an F3 championship and an F2 runner-up finish in the preceding seasons for Bristol native. Now in his fifth F1 season, Norris, 23, ranks 11th in this year’s season standings after a career-best seventh in 2022. He has reached six podiums in his 90 Grand Prix entries, including a top finish of second in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
In addition to his racing credentials, Norris is the founder of Quadrant, an esports team and lifestyle brand partnered with Veloce, a racing and gaming media brand. Norris recently appeared alongside McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown at the Tribeca Festival in New York City, which was sponsored by McLaren crypto partner OKX.
Norris and Brown discussed how technology is permeating the racing industry, from the extensive use of simulators to weekly enhancements to the car; Brown estimated that 80% of the livery changes over the course of a season. The car is packed with 300 sensors and produces about 1.5 terabytes of data during a race weekend, with McLaren having enlisted DataRobot to help apply AI algorithms to make the best use of that information. (Note: This Athlete’s Voice is primarily derived from a post-panel interview, with some of his on-stage thoughts included as well.)
On playing racing games as a kid . . .
I started when I was a kid, like a lot of kids do. I was never into the bad games, shooting and all of this. I never played any of these games, my parents didn’t let me. But driving [games], my parents allowed me to do. I guess the basics, understanding the very simple things of how to drive a car — lines, techniques — you learn such simple things at a very early age.
These skill sets develop and continue to develop even to where I am now. I'm still learning things. I'm still trying to perfect whatever I can perfect. And for me, I think it's an advantage that I played these games, and I did at such an early age — 6, 7, 8 years old — and that definitely helped me become the person I am and the driver I am today.
On his extensive use of a simulator . . .
I don't have to fear driving a simulator compared to real life. Cost is a lot less. So I'm not scared of crashing and not scared of Zak telling me off or something. And the [simulator], you don't have a different approach to how you want to go and do things. But you're still learning in every single thing that you do, whether it's real or fake or whatever. You're still learning good things and bad things. And then you take that to the track to improve.
I use it, the whole team use it. So many things now are prepared in a simulation before they’re actually done for real because you're always going to want to test everything you do. Because you can't afford to make mistakes. Any way you can test something to see how authentic it is and how correct it's going to be, from driving to designing your front wing and designing the whole car or making decisions on race day. Things are always checked as many times as possible until they actually get into action.
On his involvement with iterating technological changes on the car . . .
I’ve tried, in a way. I stick to do my job at the end of the day, so I just drive the car. But you try in as many ways as possible to help give whatever indication of advice you can give to the guys, who are some of the smartest guys in the world. These are people who are creating things that have in a way never been created, that are coming up with ideas.
Formula One is all about innovation. There are so many things in normal life now in road cars that everyone drives on a day-to-day basis, which these guys have come up with within Formula One. So in the end of the day, you can use all this information. But it's only helping us make the decisions — us as humans who are still the ones that are applying it to our everyday work, who are coming up with the actual ideas. And therefore, I still stay firmly in my position on driving the car, but just being as helpful as I can when my words and my advice are needed.
For me, the most important thing is the minds of the humans, us as people who are still the ones who are applying this information, using the information, using AI. But how we apply it, how we use it in filmmaking or designing cars or driving cars. It's all us in the end of the day, we're actually doing it. So I think that's the thing you can never forget.
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On whether he can feel the dramatic changes to the car over a season . . .
It depends. Sometimes you have things which are there to change the driving style. Sometimes that's where the improvement comes. An improvement can also be something that you don't even recognize: you just go a little bit quicker when straight, or you just go a little bit quicker in the corner because you just have a bit more grip. So sometimes you'll notice a massive difference. Sometimes you'll hardly notice the difference. But it's also gradually, it's rare that you bring something in that’s just like, so noticeable. And also, when you do put something on, drivers are, within a few laps, make that feel like it's normality again.
So when you go from the beginning of the season to the end, because it slowly happens over that whole period, we don't really notice that much. But if we were to jump back in the car at the beginning, and you're like, ‘Oh, wow, this has changed a huge amount.’ So you're reacting to what's happening and what's changing, and you're just getting on top of that. And because you do it so quickly, things become normal very quickly at the same time.
On managing decision-making in the car . . .
You train yourself. You learn from a really quite an early age, so you kind of get used to it over time. But there's still times now where there can be an information overload. And I guess it just has to be said to the team, if they're talking to me too much, or telling me to do too many things. We go to Monaco where you don't have really any time to think of changing all these dials. You think your strategy, you think of tires, you also just trying to focus on not crashing. There's a lot of times when there is still so much information, it's still like, how can you get the most important bits of information across? But it's just understanding, I guess, everyone has their own limitations or abilities. Maybe sometimes some people can do more, some people can do less, but I'm just making it known when it's too much or when I can accept more.
On reaction time training . . .
Yeah, of course, [it’s] one of the most important things, just for natural driving. The start is one of the most important parts of the race so reacting to the lights, the pit stops. Reactions are probably one of the most important things that create a Formula One driver, but it's also not just a reaction. A lot of people who can't drive a car can have quick reactions. It's the knowledge of knowing what you're reacting to and how to then apply whatever the correction is.
On how he reaches his peak performance . . .
It is trying to understand how I drive in the best way that I can, whether that's getting really pumped up before a race or qualifying. For me, it's more the opposite, the more relaxed, more chilled I can be, the better. The more subconscious I drive, the better. So if I'm consciously thinking, ‘OK, I need to try and brake here, and do this and do that’ — game over, I'm terrible. So the more I can just know subconsciously what I need to do and just not even think of it, the more I can feel like I'm just going for a drive, then you look down, Wow, you've done such a good lap. The more you can feel like that, the better it’s going to be. So trying to recreate that and get in that space as many times as often as possible.
I'm just using the people that I have around me — simple as that. I have a very good team, starting with the McLaren side with my engineers, my mechanics, [team principal] Andrea [Stella], Zak. Using everyone in the best way possible, using their connections and relationships. And then from my side, my manager, to my trainer. to my parents. Using the people I have beside me to get the best out of me, with the training with all of these things. I hate training so much. But it's part of what you’ve got to do if you want to achieve that one goal, which you know will satisfy you more than anything, which is to win a championship. You have to reach these other targets in order to achieve that, and you’ve got to make the sacrifices along the way.
On the vision for his brand Quadrant . . .
It’s in an early phase, I would say. From what I would love to achieve with it, it's still got to grow a lot more in several spaces. One, which is the teams that represent Quadrant in various games. At the minute, we have Halo, we have a team for Call of Duty, we have Rocket League. So having, I guess, like a McLaren but within all these different categories, all these different games, because I love them. I'm terrible at a lot of these games, but I know I get very excited watching my own team. I get very nervous, like my heart starts pumping when they're in a game and so on.
Expanding on the apparel side — that’s probably one of the best things. Just creating stuff that people like to wear. Hats off to [Veloce CEO Daniel Bailey]. Daniel has done a very good job with this side of it. Creating stuff that you or anyone would happily wear it's just something that's cool, but trying to sometimes keep racing involved in it, but also sometimes not.
And expand a lot more on the opportunities of working with different people. Whether that's within programs or different athletes and different things, expanding to working and creating cool things, events or whatever it is. And not just being, say, an esports team that plays games or just makes a video or does that — but expanding much more beyond that and helping athletes discover their talents or further their talent and just creating content out of a lot of these things at the same time.
On his interest in gadgets and tech . . .
Since I was a kid, I loved and I always was really into computers and games and things. And I loved it probably too much when I was a kid — my parents hated it. But anything, I just find it very fascinating, how just pieces of metal and stuff comes together, and it creates such incredible things. I also enjoy taking it all apart and destroying it at the same time. It’s just that I enjoy it. Puts a smile on my face. It’s fun. Often sharing it with friends, whatever it is, creating competitions out of it, those kinds of things. Just something that brings me joy, so simple as that.
On storytelling via digital media . . .
You have the two sides. I guess [there’s] the social media side, which is very much just me, who I am — behind the scenes a little bit, things that you don't probably ever see on Netflix, even on Formula One TV, documentaries. It's even more just me and what I do, and even though a lot of it is still Formula One-based and pictures of me driving a car, blah, blah. And then I even have my photography page, which is just more me taking photos here, what I do here when I'm just being an old person, and I’m not even in a race car.
And then you have the Netflix side, which is still trying to capture the difference of you as a Formula One driver, and as an athlete, and then you as a person at home with your family, friends, and so on. So I wouldn’t say I do anything different, but it's how things are captured and portrayed, which is different.
