Lando Norris has reopened the chapter most fans only know from the records. Ahead of his return to a Canadian Grand Prix weekend that doubles as Sprint qualifier and championship pressure-test, the McLaren driver and reigning world champion sat down with Motorsport.com to retrace the single afternoon in 2016 that bound him to the team he now leads on track.
The vehicle was the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, an evaluation programme set up in 1989 to surface the next British single-seater talent. Norris, then 16, beat a field of four to six rivals to claim it. The prize was not money. It was a day in a Formula 1 car and a full simulator deal with McLaren.
"Joining McLaren all started with winning the BRDC award," Norris said. "The McLaren BRDC award then, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the UK."
He was matter-of-fact about what came next. The win bought him through the door at Woking. "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."
From that base, the path tightened quickly. By February 2017 Norris had joined McLaren's Driver Development Programme. His first F1 free-practice outing came at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix, before a full race seat in 2019. In January of this year he was handed the inaugural Autosport Champion award, a clean bookend from BRDC junior to world champion.
"They gave me the opportunity to come into Formula 1 as a young driver," he said, "so I feel like I owe a lot back to McLaren."
It is a line worth reading twice in the context of his current season. Norris won the 2025 title, the team's first drivers' championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, but 2026 has so far belonged to Mercedes. Andrea Kimi Antonelli leads the standings by 20 points after three wins from the opening four races, and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella concedes Mercedes remain the benchmark even after a Miami points haul that finally vindicated his upgrade direction. Public loyalty from a champion driver, expressed in those terms, carries weight when fan chatter is busy linking him to Ferrari or Red Bull seats that do not exist.
The message landed with a forward-looking line as well.
"My hope for the future," Norris said, "I think for anyone to get to drive for McLaren at any point is cool. And I love it here."
For McLaren the timing is useful. The team is days away from a Sprint weekend on a circuit that has rewarded power and braking efficiency more than the high-load aero strengths that have defined the Woking package. They are bringing more updates to Canada. They are also bringing the reigning world champion who has just publicly reaffirmed where he stands.
The BRDC award itself remains, a year by year audit on whether the British junior pipeline still produces. The 2016 winner is now the man Mercedes have to beat. He still knows who handed him the keys.
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/norris-brdc-award-mclaren-young-driver-2016-career-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
