Already late last year, a rumour spread in public suggesting that the F1 driver had taken part in “extremely secret” rally tests. At that time, however, the identity of the driver remained unknown.
This week, the veil of secrecy was lifted when former Williams team principal Peter Windsor, who originally spread the rumour, revealed that the driver in question was McLaren star Lando Norris.
Windsor said Norris has always been a big rally fan. He also mentioned that Norris is “incredibly good” at driving in rally.
“I hope I’m not giving away too many secrets here when I say I know he’s been out in WRC cars and he’s unbelievably good,” Windsor said in a podcast.
Norris himself commented on the matter during a McLaren media session at the Saudi Arabian F1 Grand Prix.
“I really wanted to come in here and say, ‘Yeah, it’s true’, but it’s not,” Norris said.
F1 drivers have strict contracts which, among other things, forbid unnecessarily dangerous hobbies during their free time. Driving rally cars naturally falls under such “hobbies.”
“I said a couple of years ago, I’m not allowed. Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] doesn’t let me drive rally cars, probably for a good reason, but I’ve said many times I would love to,” Norris added.
Norris stated that the whole story is completely made up – and said he found it quite puzzling.
“It’s so weird how people come up with such things in the media. That’s how terrible it is sometimes, rather than just asking me before publishing things,” Norris remarked.
However, the current leader of the F1 drivers’ world championship doesn’t rule out the possibility that he might one day drive in rally.
“”I have a lot of respect for rally drivers,” the British driver said.
“They are definitely crazy and slightly insane, but I would love it because it’s a very different aspect compared to what I do now,” Norris continued.
“But it’s still driving, it’s still cars and all those things, [just] probably a bit more on the dangerous side, so I don’t know how much I would love it.”
Norris, 25, has a promising future ahead of him in Formula One. Many predictions have tipped him as the next F1 world champion. So it’s unlikely he’ll be switching disciplines any time soon. But maybe one day, the time will come.
“But it’s another thing in my life that I would love to tick off at some point, get to experience and have a go, so hopefully that can become a headline at some point and can become the truth,” Norris said.
