- Hello, GQ.
I'm Lando Norris and these are my 10 essentials.
[chill upbeat music]
My race helmet.
I mean, it's not something
I would probably carry with me day-to-day,
but it's something that is just very important in my life,
because it protects my life
every weekend that I go racing.
So this is me, this is my design.
This is one of the only things, really,
in Formula 1 and racing
that the driver gets to pretty much have complete control of
and each driver shows them,
personality, colors, whatever it is.
Now, growing up, I was a massive fan of Valentino Rossi,
even though he is in MotoGP and motorbikes,
and got nothing to do with car racing,
I got into that before I got into Formula 1.
So these colors were always inspired by him
since I was a very young age,
but I've had to try and make it more me
rather than just to copy of him,
because pretty much how I started.
I'll start with my logo.
So my logo here on the side,
LN, stands for my name.
But what a lot of people don't realize
is that I'm also number four,
like here, British flag, Belgian flag,
from my dad's side, my mom's from Belgium,
not many people know that either.
Yeah, not many people realize
that if you look inside the L and the N, it's number four.
I've only had number four since I joined Formula 1.
Nothing else really meant anything to me before,
like, I changed numbers a lot of times
'cause I had to, for various reasons,
or cause I couldn't pick the numbers that I wanted to.
So I had to kind of come up with something new
when I came into Formula 1,
and number four was was that.
But the yellow and the blue
are kind of colors I've had for many years now,
especially the fluorescent yellow, that's kind of my color.
It's something I've had since I started karting.
Stands out, it's bright, it looks bold.
There's a lot of people
who have kind of have dull boring-ish helmets
and you can't see from the outside very well
exactly who it is.
But with this, it's very easy.
I just hope I'm going quick while people are looking at me,
not when I'm in the gravel or something.
As you can see with this,
it's a little bit inspired by the sun,
again, from Valentino Rossi.
Valentino has the sun and the moon on the helmet.
It's a little bit like the sun but it's changed.
I've changed a little bit
to kind of go all the way more around the helmet
rather than look like just a sun.
But it's still that resemblance to him
which I always want to keep,
'cause he's the guy that got me into racing
in the first place.
Tear-offs, gets dirty on track,
flies, dirt, dust,
whatever it is to go to the tear-offs,
so to rip off and renew, have clear vision.
I've also got LN Kart, LN Kart's, my go-kart,
which I finally released just last year, I think.
I love karting.
Karting is one of the most fun times
you ever have in racing.
Growing up between the ages of eight to 12, eight to 13,
they're some of the coolest times and most memorable,
so I kind of still want to be involved in it
and still have something involved in it,
and I still love doing it every now and then when I can
together with OTK group.
And with Tony Kart, we managed to come up with my own kart,
my own little thing to keep in karting,
which are, again, similar colors to this.
[chill upbeat music]
Just a golf ball.
Luckily, I've got the Titleist number four here,
Pro V1, of course,
'cause I definitely only ever use Pro V1s.
But I'm a massive golfing nut.
I would say there's few people in the world
who are addicted to golf as much as me,
and I'm pretty sure that's a fact.
But everywhere I go, I always got golf balls in my bag,
'cause you never know
when you're gonna have to tee it up and hit one.
Plus, you get you some lovely courses around the world,
so I always gotta travel with my golf balls,
with my golf clubs.
They go everywhere with me.
Played quite a few times now with Poulter,
with Justin Rose, Weisberger.
Joaquin Niemann?
I think that's how you say it.
And I played with Zach Brown.
He's a very talented golfer,
so a privilege to get to golf with him every now and then.
I got another Pro-Am coming up in Wentworth very soon,
so I need to get my practice in,
so I'm actually going straight after this interview
for some more golf.
[chill upbeat music]
My TUMI bags.
It's not specifically just my rucksack,
but I, myself, am a TUMI partner.
I've got everything possible from TUMI, including golf bags.
But rucksack, rucksack, I go everywhere with.
I've even got the small case, the big case,
I got a shoe case as well,
every bag you can think of from TUMI.
I travel a lot. It makes my life very easy.
But I also travel heavy, not light in any way,
so I have a lot of bags when I travel.
But I got a few of the different rucksacks like this one.
This is the McLaren one.
I can fit everything in, my tablets, phone, whatever it is,
golf balls, books that I never read
but I just always carry with me just to look smart,
put it on the table every now and then.
Rucksack.
[chill upbeat music]
So next item, my watch.
This is my Richard Mille,
which is a beautiful, beautiful design.
A perk of the job.
This is one I get given when working here at McLaren.
I've got a few different ones now over the years,
some different ones.
But this is my absolute favorite.
Very thin, extremely lightweight,
I almost don't even feel like you're carrying it ever.
But I can drive in it, I can play golf in it,
you can do all sports exercise or whatever in it,
and it looks beautiful
when it's not got my greasy marks on it.
Rich Mille watch.
Looks cool. I have to wear it everywhere.
So, thanks, Richard Mille.
[chill music]
Sunglasses.
I've really...
I don't have bad eyes, I have good eyes,
but I struggle seeing when there's too much sun,
and, like, it strains my eyes too much,
so I have to wear sunglasses in a lot of places
even inside, sometimes, when there's too much light.
Not 'cause I think I'm cool
'cause I wear sunglasses inside
but literally, 'cause there's a lot of light
and my eyes start going really funny sometimes.
But these are my very first pair of sunglasses.
Not my first ever, but me as a person.
LN 04, they're our sun gods, our partner here at McLaren.
I basically designed all of this
and then they basically, like, copied what I said.
They got a little engraving here.
These have to go around with me everywhere, inside, out.
I got a lot of pairs of these,
so I basically got one in every single room.
When I go to the racetrack,
there's some sunnies waiting for me.
[chill music]
Next up, my hoodie.
I am a hoodie guru.
This specific one, this is my Quadrant one.
Quadrant is my esports team.
This was from my latest collection, the Off Road collection,
which looked freaking awesome.
This is the black hoodie, there's loads of other ones.
Two things with the hoodies, one, I always wear hoodies.
I'm a hoodie guy, so whenever I'm traveling,
when I'm here at McLaren, I wear hoodies.
I just find 'em a lot more comfortable,
they suited me a lot more,
plus I got a long neck
so it kind of hides my long neck a little bit.
Actually, even when I joined McLaren,
there was no hoodies that we were allowed to wear
and I tried and tried,
and, finally, I got the clothing team
to make me wear a hoodie.
So, actually at the track, you'll see me in the hoodie now
which I don't think McLaren I ever had until I rocked up.
So I'm proud to say I changed the team here for the good
and we can now wear hoodies.
[chill upbeat music]
The tablet.
I travel a lot, I spend a lot of times in planes, in cars,
going around, going to different countries,
plus I grew up on these things.
Playing games, whatever, in school, whatever.
But watch movies, can work emails,
although I don't do that too often.
It's always, generally always on the tablet.
[chill music]
Headphones, these are my Klpisch McLaren headphones,
lovely cool designs we got here.
It's a little bit like a tire, race tire, intermediate.
Again, one of our partners here at McLaren.
I always gotta travel with them,
flying away so much, in a car so much,
always listen to music or watching movies, Netflix,
whatever it is, I gotta wear headphones.
The one guy I know more than anyone is Daniel.
I think he knows the lyrics
to pretty much every song ever created.
Our taste of music's kind of similar.
He's not a guy who goes for, like,
super upbeat stuff too much.
He goes for more like chilled, Charlie, Stew, Harvey Gunn.
Just more chilled stuff, relaxing stuff,
like we're on our flights, that's the kind of stuff.
But I know him more than anyone else along with Carlos.
The Carlos listens to...
I dunno what he listens to.
But, yeah, Daniel's got good taste. I'll give him that.
[chill music]
'Cause I'm such a big gamer and such a big nerd,
I take my gaming stuff with me everywhere I go.
It's rare that I use a controller
'cause I'm a mouse-and-keyboard kind of player.
Now that disappoints a lot of people,
But I grew up only ever really using a steering wheel
rather than ever a controller.
So with racing and everything,
growing up on the PlayStation,
I always use a steering wheel and pedals, and whatever.
So I'm actually pretty shocking
with a controller when it comes to any game,
whether that's Call of Duty or FIFA, all of that stuff.
I love playing those games.
Whenever I travel, I play with my friends whenever I'm away.
Only game that I currently play...
Well, actually, two. "Halo."
I got a "Halo" team in Quadrant
and this is actually our Quadrant controller
that we just released with Scuf.
So if you want to go and get one of these, you can.
But "Halo" and "Escape from Tarkov,"
those are the two games I currently play
'cause when I get into a game, that's basically it
for, like, six months,
and then I'll eventually move on to another game.
Quadrant was still quite new.
The only actual esports team that I have inside of it
is the "Halo" team who are extremely good.
They came out to the French Grand Prix with me
a few weeks ago.
They're kind of starting off the esports
gaming side of it all.
But it's expanding, it's getting bigger,
which is awesome and I love all of that stuff,
all the gaming side of life.
- [Interviewer] Would you say that gaming improves F1,
like, are they interconnected in some way?
- If you use it properly, like the simulator
helped me a lot growing up as a kid,
between the age of probably...
I mean, since I started, you know,
playing "Gran Turismo," like, against my dad
when I was like four years old probably,
I think that started a lot of my love for racing
and also got my eye in,
and I could learn how to drive a car from a very early age.
And then you buy the simulator, you know,
you at the steering wheel, you get the pedals,
all of that stuff.
That helps you for sure.
You learn tracks, you learn how to drive different cars,
and that helps me through my whole career,
especially when you get
into the professional racing simulators,
then it'll help you a lot.
[chill music]
This one, massive perk of the job.
So the next item is my McLaren car key.
Big perk of being part of McLaren
is I get to drive at McLaren.
So, since my first day here,
I've been able to drive some very nice cars.
McLaren GT, which fits my golf clubs straight in the back,
literally designed to fit some golf clubs in.
I drive that everywhere.
But I think it's awesome.
McLaren and our team,
not only that I watched since I was young,
and supported, and I was a massive fan of,
but, you know, whenever you're on the street
and you see a McLaren pass,
when you're a kid you think,
"One day I wanna be able to,"
or, you know, you wish to drive one of those cars.
So that wish finally came true
and now I get to drive one every week,
which is pretty awesome.
So, pretty awesome perk of the job, McLaren car key.
All righty, so, thank you, GQ.
Those are my 10 essentials. Hope you like them.
If you have any questions,
make sure to fire them into the comment box below,
and see you soon.
Thank you.