Lando Norris branded “the real deal” after showing mental resilience

Former Formula 1 race engineer Rob Smedley has praised Lando Norris’s psychological strength, dubbing the McLaren driver “the real deal”.

During an episode of the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley discussed the public perception of the 2025 champion following the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Despite a 10-place grid penalty, Norris showed strong pace throughout the race. 

While he finished the Belgian Grand Prix in seventh, the Briton went on to secure his first grand prix victory of the season in Hungary.

“When you wander around the paddock, and you chat to people, I think that he gets a bit of a bad rap. It’s always like, ‘Oh, Lando had this amazing junior career and therefore…’ and he did. Amazing in terms of how well-funded his junior career was. I think he had everything. But he still arrived here now, and he still has to do the business,” Smedley explained.

“There are plenty of drivers who have had more money spent on their junior career than Lando Norris and haven’t been able to deliver in Formula 1.”

Smedley added that he does not think the criticism comes from fans, arguing that it instead comes from people “on the periphery” who are not team insiders.

“I think team insiders who know how hard this sport is and know what Lando Norris does on a week-to-week basis, I don’t think anyone has anything but praise,” he continued. 

“The guy is super fast, and now he’s super consistent as well. And actually, I think that for all he p***es about and does his Twitch or whatever it’s called and his social media stuff, and he’s a bit of a character, he’s tough.

“He has a lot of mental resilience, and we saw that last year. He is very, very tough. So whatever his upbringing, whatever Adam, his dad, has done for him and all the rest of it, forget all of that. The kid’s the real deal. He’s very, very resilient.”

Following his victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris sits fifth in the drivers’ championship with 128 points, 10 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth and 19 points ahead of Max Verstappen in sixth.

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