“It was painful and I needed it”: When Le Mans winner opened up on Lando Norris’ role in his career

Le Mans winner Ferdinand Habsburg claimed that his former teammate and McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris played a "painful" role in his motorsport career. The British driver made his foray into the pinnacle of motorsport after a very successful junior career and joined the Woking-based outfit. With them, he has gotten to the top of F1 as evidenced by his 2024 campaign.

Habsburger and Norris were teammates for two years for Carlin Motorsport in the FIA European F3 and also raced in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand. While the 25-year-old graduated to F2 in 2018, Habsburger stayed back in F3 before ultimately making a pivot to sportscar racing, the following year.

While appearing on the Tomorrow' Motorsport podcast in 2022, the Austrian spoke about the key role played by Lando Norris in his career and said:

“You need the toughest competition in the world to even remotely get good. I needed Lando Norris as my teammate for two years to actually become a racing driver. Without Lando, I don't think I would be a LeMans winner or a WEC champion. I wouldn't be a professional racing driver. That wouldn't be the case.

"I needed Lando to DESTROY me, to make me question my own physical abilities and really dig deep and go testing. When I was testing, getting out of the car, scratching my head because I got beaten by two seconds in the wet. And you're like, this is just painful. It was painful and I needed it.”

The 27-year-old won the iconic 24h Le Mans in 2021 and became the first Austrian to win the LMP2 in the World Endurance Championship.

Lando Norris gives his take on the "turning point" of his title fight against Max Verstappen

McLaren driver Lando Norris claimed that the race in Mexico was the "turning point" for his title aspirations against reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the recently concluded 2024 season.

As per PlanetF1, the four-time race winner spoke about the impact of the race in Mexico City and reflected:

“Obviously lost out on a few things, and there were maybe three starts this year which lost me one or two positions at times – but they were positions quite often just to Max.

"You know, going up against Max in any state is always going to be tricky, and no one has a nice time racing Max. I think Mexico was a bit of a turning point when it was proved that not everything he does is perfect."

Lando Norris ultimately lost the 2024 championship to the Red Bull driver by a margin of 63 points despite having arguably the faster car over the majority of the season.