Let’s take a look at Lando Norris who drives for McLaren. Lando was born in Bristol on the 13th of November 1999 – here he is in the papaya-coloured racing kit of the McLaren team.
He’s a smiley youngster, so I really enjoy photographing him. He scrubs up alright too and is very photogenic.
He won the 2017 Formula 3 European Championship, then in the following year in 2018, he backed it up with a second to George Russell in the F2 championship. Pretty cool looking rooster and a real character on social media with a great presence, and he has a marvellous following both in Britain and around the world.
His father, Adam Norris, owns a scooter company called Pure Scooters.
Lando is seen here with one of these scooters he brought to the Austrian GP and rode in the paddock. It’s a good piece of kit and I think some of the other drivers were also interested in it.
Here’s his mother, Cisca, taken out the front of the Silverstone paddock when his parents were just giving him a word of advice, perhaps as he entered the track.
And here’s Lando’s older brother, Oli, sitting at this table.
This was in Silverstone and this is the Netflix people were doing some vision of the group having lunch. You’ll see the Netflix series Drive to Survive next year or late this year, and if you love that series, you’re gonna love this year, because there have been many great developments and so many interesting stories to tell.
This is his trainer, Jon Malvern.
Jon is always happy to smile for me and stays very close to Lando’s side in the garage. He’s his go-to man, and in the paddock, often you’ll see the two arriving together sometimes in the orange gear, sometimes in the white gear.
On the left here is one of the press secretaries, Charlotte Sefton.
I love this shot of Charlotte walking Lando back down the paddock after the race – he was perhaps a little disappointed with his effort in the Austin United States Grand Prix, and so she’s taking him under her wing and walking him back down the paddock.
This shot here was after a race or upper qualifying session.
When Lando’s in public he needs to be wearing this Richard Mille watch, who sponsor the McLaren team. I like the look he had on his face here too. It says, “What are you doing taking a photo of me?”
Here’s another track walk shot of him in Sochi underneath the overpass, and with him on this walk is Andrew Jarvis, and Henrik Ringnér, who does a lot of his social media videos for the McLaren team.
Lando’s teammate is Carlos Sainz Jr – Carlos and Lando have a beautiful relationship, and it’s one of the real fun ones in the paddock. I remember this shot in Singapore where the two had set up to do an interview.
I also often see them on the grid, before a race, standing and having a little pre-race teammate chat.
I had a great opportunity here for a shot of the two having a pre-race conference in the rain on that most marvellous German Grand Prix this year, which was one of my favourites as so much happened, particularly on the last corner where I was stationed in the wet.
I do like the fact that these two teammates are good characters, and if you hark back to a couple of races ago to Round 17 in Japan, earlier in the event they were asked to sign these posters which were out the front of the paddock, however they then decided they would each deface the other’s poster.
It was a big post on Instagram where people were so keen to see what these two characters were up to, and it just goes to show that they are always engaged and always willing to have a bit of fun as teammates.
Lando was more than happy to put on this little face mask at the recent Mexican GP.
He was about three or four metres away from the swipe gates coming towards me with the face mask around his neck. I thought, “Maybe when he comes back he’ll have it up,” because he had threatened on social media he would wear it at some point. And sure enough, as he came through the swipe gate, he put it on. Good frames – interesting photos – and it went well on my Instagram account.
Here’s something that I had no idea about until after the Mexican GP, but I was invited to go and shoot the salmon. What is the salmon you ask? Well, it’s a ritual that happens after every race with the McLaren teammates here. The guys gather, Lando runs, jumps into their arms, and they hold him up like a salmon. And for this particular race, they decided to tickle him and made him carry on like an absolute kid.
This was a great opportunity to shoot him, as he was relaxed with his teammates around. I think that’s the sort of things that people like to see – the fun element. Now you don’t get that with a lot of drivers because they are perhaps much more serious. But this fellow is 21, and he’s really enjoying his time laughing and carrying on.
And if there’s anyone that can make him laugh, it’s the man on the right here – Daniel Ricciardo.
I think Daniel’s got his measure. You would have seen a couple of times this year where he’s cracked Lando up in press conferences and they have a great relationship. They’re marvellous fellows, both of them.
I love it when drivers look me straight down the lens, and I do get a number of photos where Lando connects with my camera.
As a photographer, you want that intimacy of them looking straight at the lens, and you can tell when they’re not looking exactly actually, but I’ve certainly got my fair share of shots where he’s had some fun with me.
No more so than this particular shot here.
I had this pumpkin I bought at a CVS store in America, and I thought I’d take it down as it was Halloween. I cut out the back with a hole and I stuck my camera lens through it – he came straight towards me and he got down low, and at this point, he’s just about to say, “Can you see anything from there?” Well, as you can see, yes you can see his face.
He’s not a bad pool player, Lando. I shot him in Russia in Sochi at this hotel playing pool with Jon Malvern, his trainer, in the background.
He enjoys a game of pool and he certainly had some fun that day!
Here’s a lovely shot that I fluked in a very wet morning in Mexico.
He came in through the gates, and I said, “Lando! Could you walk towards me, perhaps through that puddle?” He said “Yeah, sure,” so he walks towards me, puts his foot in the puddle, and there we have an interesting photo. When most people saw it on my Instagram feed, it took them a little while to work out what they were looking at. Because when you look at it, it looks like just a grainy photo of him walking, and then you look down the bottom you think, “Hang on, there’s legs there too and they connect… Oh, I get it. You flipped the photo!”
I was also lucky to get this particular shot at the French GP.
He had a very good qualifying session and had completed all his media interviews before heading back to the hospitality suite, and Zak Brown, the team’s CEO, happened to meet him halfway along, and I got a shot of this lovely hug.
Lando Norris – a likeable guy with a great future in front of him with F1, and I certainly enjoyed photographing him.
