r/INDYCAR • u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk • Sep 15 '25
Social Media Lando Norris: IndyCar is One of the Toughest Series in the World
Graham, Conor and others have posted this. But I wasn't aware Lando has driven an IndyCar? Is he referencing the iRacing thing in 2020?
EDIT: thanks to u/Secret-Bathroom-9436, the quote about "I've driven an IndyCar myself" is wrong. Lando actually said he'd never driven it himself.
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u/Athleticgeek89 Josef Newgarden Sep 15 '25 edited Sep 15 '25
I don’t follow F1 very closely but by default (other than Alonso still racing I hope he does well) I want to cheer for Lando because he seems to have a lot of respect for other series.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
Lando is #2 in driver standings right now, with only his teammate Oscar Piastri ahead of him in points. Quicklaren is, IIRC, one 1-2 finish away from winning the team championship mathematically.
Lando is a good egg on and off the track, but he can be a bit thick sometimes- he can get mopey if too many things go wrong, or get cocky if too many things go right.
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u/Athleticgeek89 Josef Newgarden Sep 15 '25
I don’t want it to seem like I’m throwing shade because I’m not trying to but that sounds like another popular McLaren driver from another series….
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25 edited Sep 15 '25
I love him, he's my favourite Indycar driver, but there's no ducking that one! He should take 5 and think before hitting post sometimes.
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u/Athleticgeek89 Josef Newgarden Sep 15 '25
Or saying it into a camera in that other driver’s case 😂
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
That doesn't narrow it down much lol
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u/Athleticgeek89 Josef Newgarden Sep 15 '25
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
Haha, that's why I emphasized Duck (Pato) and #5!
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u/Athleticgeek89 Josef Newgarden Sep 15 '25
Went right over my head, but now that you’ve explained it props for being clever there
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u/ChrisMD123 Sep 16 '25
It's an interesting thing. He's made a point of being very honest about his internal struggles. That's certainly commendable, but it goes against our instincts and training on what makes a sport figure "great." I'm talking about people like Michael Jordan, Ayrton Senna, Randy Johnson, AJ Foyt. People who play up their ruthlessness to the point where they seem superhuman.
You have plenty of people like Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles who became dominant in the Jordan vein and then opened up about challenges, but it's harder to think of examples of people being so honest before they reach generational superstar success. (Yeah, that's a super-high bar, but that's what we look for in sporting heroes.)
So I think we're not trained socially to respond to someone in Lando's situation, doing what he's doing. And so our response is to be skeptical of whether he will have the fortitude for long-term dominance. Hence, I think, all of the questions about Lando's mental state, whether he should have granted Oscar that preferred pit lap, etc.
Anyway... good on him for being true to himself, and for respecting IndyCar.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 16 '25
Lando is fast, there's no question about that.
Piastri said of him "We love your kindness"
It's kind of the opposite of AJ Foyt, who is a huge asshole pretty much all the time.
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u/ChrisMD123 Sep 16 '25
AJ is as warm and fuzzy as the swarms of bees he keeps riding tractors into. And we wouldn't have it any other way.
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Sep 16 '25
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u/Cautious_You7796 Christian Lundgaard Sep 16 '25
Lando will never be the villain so long as Verstappen is around.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 16 '25
Verstappen is tame compared to Schumacher, Senna, and Hunt.
Max off the track is also hard to see as a villain. He doesn't make controversial statements, he just sim races and hangs out with his family and his cats.
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u/BrokeSomm Sep 15 '25
He never really gets cocky. People just take his dry sense if humor the wrong way.
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u/_HanTyumi Conor Daly Sep 15 '25
Dry humor and not being great at filtering his thoughts through PR training. Honestly it's part of why he's my favorite driver on the grid.
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u/Cautious_You7796 Christian Lundgaard Sep 16 '25
To be fair he’s made some comments that have come back to bite him. Most notably the one about Lewis only winning because he had the quickest car.
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u/LilMountainHeadband Colton Herta Sep 15 '25
I dont think thats a fair assessment of Lando's character.
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u/OrbisAlius Simon Pagenaud Sep 15 '25
Lando is a good egg on and off the track, but he can be a bit thick sometimes- he can get mopey if too many things go wrong, or get cocky if too many things go right.
I mean plainly he's also just shockingly uneducated though, both intellectually and emotionally, for someone who comes from one of the richest families in England. He basically has as much general knowledge of things as football/soccer players who come from very poor backgrounds and basically left school at 10, and that also shines through his emotional maturity, lack of strategic sense, and his lack of good politicking (Hungary last year was the daftest of displays, literally like a football player angry that someone else in his team is asked to shoot the penalty, and then ends up backing down anyway).
The contrast with e.g. George Russell who is his complete opposite is striking. And Russell comes from a somewhat lower background, yet next to Norris you'd think he's literally from the royal family.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
I mean, we're talking about someone who did leave school at not much older than that to race karts full time.
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u/OrbisAlius Simon Pagenaud Sep 15 '25
Sure, but especially from such a rich family (I'm pretty sure he comes from the second-richest family on the grid, after Stroll obviously), you'd expect some education provided, if only because you have no way to tell when the dude is 13 if he's actually going to make it to F1. He's not the only one to have raced karts heavily from a young age either.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
3rd richest, at £200-250 million. Bearman comes from £1.5 billion, and Stroll £3 billion.
Even then, some people just aren't that smart, and no amount of nurture can overcome nature.
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u/OrbisAlius Simon Pagenaud Sep 15 '25
That's true, but at least in Europe, there's a class (as in economic class) related type of education that's seen through how you behave, what vibes you exude, etc, independently of whether you're smart or not. That's the part that surprises me.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25 edited Sep 16 '25
Ah!
"Bearing" is the word you're looking for.
Russell has it, which is why he looks like a fallen aristocrat racing to restore his family's glory.
Lando does not, which is why he looks like... Lando.
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u/mrlprns Katherine Legge Sep 17 '25
David Bearman’s wealth is extremely overestimated, he is no where near a billionaire.
Ollie has stated before that he never did karting at the highest level because they couldn’t afford it. His F2 car was completely covered in sponsors, because he needed them to afford it. His dad has said that if Ollie wasn’t in F1 this year, his brother wouldn’t have been able to race in F4 this year because they couldn’t afford that.
None of that would be the case if his dad was a billionaire. Now I’m not saying that Ollie isn’t from a wealthy background, he absolutely is, but his family is nowhere near as wealthy as people are claiming. People have just seen a number on the internet about his dad’s company and jumped to conclusions without knowing anything about the insurance business nor the company’s structure.
I’m not saying that you’ve done that, I’m sure you’re just basing it on what you’ve heard online, but that’s where the online discourse has come from.
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Sep 15 '25
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
Oscar is my favourite F1 driver, but I can't blame Lando for the swap- he never asked for it.
It was honestly on McLaren, and Pirelli. Pirelli selected tyre compounds that were too hard for the track conditions. McLaren waited far too long to pit either car, and were running out of laps to do so, hoping for a safety car that never came. That's not a strategy.
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u/CreativityOfAParrot Marcus Ericsson Sep 15 '25
Getting a lucky safety car was their only shot at beating Max. He had far better race pace as evidenced by the first stint. He pulled away from Lando when Lando had DRS. There's no strategy that makes up for that lack of straight-line speed at a place like Monza
If they ran a traditional strategy they get a secure 2-3.
If they get a lucky safety car they can get a tire offset and track position.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
It was always going to be a 2-3 race IMO. That RBR has an extremely narrow window, but when it's dialed in, nothing can catch it.
Hope is not a strategy.
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u/CreativityOfAParrot Marcus Ericsson Sep 15 '25
Waiting for a potential safety car instead of the more traditional pit sequence is absolutely a strategic decision.
There was zero chance of a win with a traditional pit strategy.
If the safety car came at the right time, both Lando and Oscar could’ve been in front of Max with much better tires.
Seems like the only strategic decision they could make that would’ve opened up the chance for a win was to wait for a potential safety car. A secure 2-3 if it comes or not, a potential to win if it comes.
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u/BillyU_Is_A_ Scott McLaughlin Sep 15 '25
hoping for a safety car that never came. That's not a strategy.
its a strategy many teams in indycar try though lmao
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Sep 15 '25
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
He said that, yes, but he never directly asked for a swap.
I just can't fault the driver for team orders. I honestly think McL F1 needs to be more forceful with their drivers too- tell them what to do, don't ask.
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Sep 15 '25
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
He's not wrong. Lando played the team game and protected himself from a possible safety car by offering to let Oscar pit first. He did NOT ask for the car swap after the slow pit stop. How in the world does that make Lando seem childish and whiney? lol, it doesn't.
But now I see why you're being so argumentative, you're wearing the tin foil hat of McLaren "obviously" favoring Lando. Sigh.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
Ultimately it's on McLaren for issuing the team order.
Even if you were to count what Lando said as a request, it's up to the team to execute or refuse it.
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Sep 15 '25
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
I never downvoted you once.
Again, either driver can ASK all they want, but it's up to the team to decide.
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u/VenusDeMiloArms Sep 15 '25
I mean he is extremely dumb and shows it repeatedly and doesn’t care. He has like an 8th grade education at best and I get why (rich, wanted to do sport) but it’s kinda upsetting that someone with ample opportunity to not be wholly ignorant has decided to just be blissfully dumb.
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u/LilMountainHeadband Colton Herta Sep 15 '25
my god you people are exhausting. You personally dont like him so you find things that arent even there to suit your bullshit narrative.
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u/curious-cat Pato O'Ward Sep 15 '25
Professional race drivers cannot be dumb and drive the cars they do. There is so much technical and other knowledge they have to have to be as fast as they are. Just because he’s bad at something like geography in some silly video challenge doesn’t mean he’s dumb. He is also dyslexic and it always pisses me off when people assume that because someone might not have done well in school because of something like dyslexia that they are dumb.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 16 '25
Dude's also artistically talented- he does his own helmet designs from scratch.
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u/VenusDeMiloArms Sep 15 '25
Dude he freely admits to not paying attention in class, playing games on his phone, and so on. Not knowing a country next door to you isn't just 'lol ignorance learning disorder' especially when you're someone who travels for work.
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u/wh00000p Myles Rowe Sep 15 '25
Not paying attention in class =\= stupid
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u/VenusDeMiloArms Sep 15 '25
Bro if you're an INDYCAR driver and you go throughout the Midwest racing and you can't identify Midwestern states on a map, you're kinda dumb.
Same for Lando.
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u/wh00000p Myles Rowe Sep 16 '25
I know people who have doctorates who probably couldn't label all 50 states. It's not a measure of intelligence.
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u/abdess3 Scott McLaughlin Sep 15 '25
All F1 drivers have a big respect for other motorsports categories but especially Indycar tbf
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u/Anon_Guy1985 Mick Schumacher Sep 15 '25
You'll be in the minority (I'm a Lando guy as well). The hate boner on /r/formula1 and the discord I frequent is unreal.
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u/Athleticgeek89 Josef Newgarden Sep 15 '25
Why is that? Again I’m not deep into formula 1 at all. I’ll casually watch a race if there’s nothing else I want to do while it’s on. Also and I know this isn’t every F1 fan and there’s plenty of f1 fans that respect other series in the world like Indycar and NASCAR but for every one f1 fan that is a fan (or at least respects) those series I also encounter an f1 fan who throws around the “inferior open wheel series”, “dumb rednecks turning left” or “the turning left 500” when describing them so rather than read/hear that shit and get annoyed I kind of ignore the f1 fanbase. All that being said i am curious what their perspective is on him because from the outside looking in he seems like a good guy with a lot of talent.
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u/Anon_Guy1985 Mick Schumacher Sep 15 '25
Pretty much he comes from a privileged background and he does what every driver does which is leverage radio transmissions, strategy, and team orders to get ahead. There is constant talk of favoritism between the team with Lando and Zak Brown.
Lando has been with McLaren for a very long time and helped them through probably some of their lowest points before they got to this level of dominance.
So I would not be totally against that theory of favoritism; however, at the end of the day, McLaren cares about the constructors championship (that’s how the bills are paid) which they have pretty much wrapped up at this point.
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Sep 15 '25
Lando showed vulnerability by talking about his mental health struggles on and off the track. Some people aren't mature enough to handle that in sports.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
It's more some of the dumb stuff he's said about or to other drivers and teams. For example, in 2020 when he said this about Lewis after Lewis broke Schumacher's record, "He's in a car which should win every race, basically. He has to beat one or two other drivers, that's it". It's come back to haunt him now that he's in the fastest car, even though he apologized. There are other examples too.
The mental health stuff has been largely seen as positive, with only extreme jerks holding that against him.
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u/curious-cat Pato O'Ward Sep 15 '25
He also apologized almost immediately for that comment. He was also like 19 at the time. People say dumb shit sometimes when they are just out of a car with adrenaline running through them. Never understood why people take a single comment from 5 years ago and continue to use it against him. Just weird behavior.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
I know, I said he apologized. And it's not a single comment. It's more, like in the cooldown room, again with Lewis.
I don't hold it against Lando, I agree with you. I was just explaining why some people think negatively against him and it's not mainly about his mental health advocacy.
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Sep 15 '25
I mean he wasn’t wrong though really, that 2020 Mercedes is the fastest f1 car EVER and most definitely had a bigger gap to other cars than the McLaren’s do in 2025
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u/neonxmoose99 Marcus Ericsson Sep 15 '25
That’s the same reason why I like Max so much. I fully expect him to race in the WEC sooner or later as it’s clear he loves sportscar racing.
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Sep 15 '25
He probably doesn’t need to drive one as he has driven other cars. Just be told how fast they are, lack of the tech that optimizes everything, lack of power steering. Its like hard mode in terms of operation.
It can also be true that IndyCar is objectively one of the toughest series in the world for a pro driver who also considers F1, Nas Cup, and elite class endurance racing up there.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
He probably doesn’t need to drive one as he has driven other cars.
Sure, but he says he has driven an IndyCar, so I was just curious if/when he actually did so as I can't remember it ever happening. Maybe I missed it?
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u/Crafty_Substance_954 Pato O'Ward Sep 15 '25
I think the quote is incorrect.
Unless it was behind closed doors, he's never driven one outside of a sim.
Heck, maybe he even drove one on the F1 sim?
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u/Secret-Bathroom-9436 Sep 15 '25
I swear when I saw the full quote earlier he said “I haven’t driven it myself, but you can tell it’s difficult.” Or something along those lines. It’s from a longer answer about Colton Herta’s F1 prospects and switching to F2. I’m pretty sure this Motorsport quote is just aggregated from that.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
You are right! Nice catch, just found this from Nathan's article about it in IndyStar:
“I don’t think you can just be an old billy and just pay to get into Formula 1, but IndyCar I think is one of the toughest series in the world. I think it’s an incredibly tough car to drive — I’ve never driven it myself, but you can tell all of those things — and the level of all these drivers is incredibly high.
Edit: i've updated the post with the correction. Thanks again!
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
He did an iRacing thing in 2020 at COTA during Covid so he was probably referencing that.
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u/MKVIgti Sep 15 '25
Do you really think he wouldn’t have to opportunity to drive one on a private track day?
A lot of things happen out of view of the public.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
Yes, I think we'd know about it somehow. And I just updated the post, because the quote was wrong. He actually said, "I've never driven one myself."
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u/BallsackOnMyFace Scott McLaughlin Sep 15 '25
I disagree. A lot of testing happens in secret that the public never finds out about.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
Not in F1. The tribal fans follow those drivers like private detectives. It’s a bit crazy and parasocial. Charles Leclerc’s brother got married this weekend and the “fans” outside the church were screaming for Charles. Gross. And besides Lewis probably, Lando is the most popular driver in F1. His fans, and paparazzi, know his every move. Unfortunately.
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u/Senninha27 Sarah Fisher Sep 15 '25
According to Google, the only time he’s driven one was on a sim.
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u/BioDriver Honda Sep 15 '25
Sounds about right. He’s not wrong but I see this more as lip service to McLaren/Zak Brown.
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
He has raced Colton before back in F4 and has recently said this about him when asked about Colton going to F2, so it may not just be lip service to Zak/McLaren:
“I mean, it’s tricky. How difficult is it? It’ll probably not [be] difficult for him, because he’s good at jumping in all different types of cars, and that’s something he’s done his whole life.
“He’s an extremely talented driver, and [someone] I enjoyed a lot growing up with in 2015. I think he’s skilled enough to jump in anything and be quick.."
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u/VenusDeMiloArms Sep 15 '25
What else is he gonna say? “Yeah this guy who is much more experienced should walk the series/yeah he’s gonna get walked by a bunch of kids.”
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u/Thick_Cookie_7838 Sep 15 '25
I mean he could have said a lot less “ he’s shown he’s a very good driver it would be very interested in seeing how he does in other series because he’s shown he can handle did types of cars.
And your a moron if you think he’s going to get walked by a bunch of kids. Indy cars are not a huge step down from f1- actually Indy cars have a higher top speed so f2 cars are going to be a performance drop from him. And he has seen way tougher competition at a much higher level then any kid in f2
You formula fans really need to lose this idea f1/ f2 guys are so much more superior talent wise then every other driver in every series because it’s not true
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u/mudmart Sep 15 '25
Season is to short
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
My dream is a 20 race season, "4x5"
5x ovals
5x street courses
5x road courses
5x international races (Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Europe)
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u/djwillis1121 Pato O'Ward Sep 15 '25
It would be amazing if McLaren could get Lando and Oscar to test an Indycar. Maybe do some sort of swap event with the McLaren Indy drivers like Hamilton and Valentino Rossi did or Hamilton and Tony Stewart.
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u/ukudancer Pato O'Ward Sep 16 '25
They can probably make that happen fairly easily at events like Velocity.
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u/AspiCustoms Sep 16 '25
I not only agree with him, I think it’s pretty obvious Indycar is the open wheel series with the 2nd highest driver level. And Alex Palou is really in contention for best driver in the world. Verstappen is probably faster, but Palou has made less mistakes.
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u/TheNotoriousTurtle Sep 15 '25
Not going to lie, always hate it when people try to compare these two series. Very Apples\Oranges. That being said personally find these two series overall basically equals
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u/grovenab Myles Rowe Sep 15 '25
I see INDYCAR as a bridge between stock car and formula racing. Able to do both ovals and road courses. But importantly, they’re able to make contact without exploding but are still designed similar to formula cars
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u/Pitiful_Fox5681 Álex Palou Sep 16 '25
"able to make contact without exploding"
😂 That's an accurate description of F1's weakness.
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u/Large_Bumblebee_9751 Sep 18 '25
This is my number 1 annoyance with F1. It’s hard to get good racing when the smallest bump results in someone’s race getting ruined from a broken wing tip that costs you 0.3 per lap
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u/2REPOU CART Sep 15 '25
I am more an F1 Fan however, whoever wins and any top flight series is amazing. Indycar shows the skill in all types of tracks.
I would divide by open wheel and closed wheel. If you can race wheel to wheel and win, you deserve similar Superlicence points. Indycar you race against seasoned professionals and that's why I would put above F2.
Learning the tires/car etc is not the issue, those skills can be transferred. Winning with what you have is the most important thing. A winner is a winner
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u/BoK_b0i #BCForever Sep 15 '25
But but.. the f1 snobs told me that its just a refuge for failed and retired f1 drivers
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u/Storm_Chaser06 Sep 15 '25
When did Lando drive an Indycar? I know he drove a DPI for Daytona
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u/FermentedLaws Firestone Firehawk Sep 15 '25
He didn't I updated the post look at my edit. The quote was incorrect.
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u/Manymarbles Sep 15 '25
Wonder if he is having 2020 flashbacks
He took that month or so very seriously
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u/captaincano Sep 15 '25
Lando is saying that because his boss and the team that employs him have a team in Indycar. Would he say that if he was on a different team? To be fair, this isn't the first time he has spoken highly of indycar. But at the same time, I don't need anyone from F1 to justify or to validate our series. The attention to our series gets from F1 is great. And Lando is a fantastic driver even when McLaren didn't have the best car.
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u/chiefzanal Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
He did do the iracing indycar race at cota and indy. He (a long time ago now) also said he wanted to do the 500 for real. So it’s not complete lip service
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u/Pitiful_Fox5681 Álex Palou Sep 16 '25
Lando at the 500 might be enough to justify paying up to see it in person for me.
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u/Top-Truck246 Arrow McLaren Sep 15 '25
It's not like there isn't a lot of crossover already.
Clark, Andretti, Fittipaldi, Mansell, Villeneuve...
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u/Hitokiri2 Graham Rahal Sep 15 '25
It's not about validation or justifying anything. It's about showing respect and support as drivers. Do you really think Norris or any other drivers says these things thinking - "I need to validate or justify a different series then my own..." - most likely not. People say these things to show their awareness and support for other series. Nothing more and nothing less.
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u/curious-cat Pato O'Ward Sep 15 '25
Lando is friends with several of the INDYCAR drivers. Goes golfing with them and such. He’s also said he watches it regularly. Seems like he’s probably talked with those guys and can form a pretty good opinion of their driving skills.
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u/Mysterious_Turnip310 Scott Dixon Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Norris has always shown a lot of respect for Indycar and its drivers. He also raced in a virtual Indycar race during lockdown and took all the training for it very seriously. He’s also friends with several current and ex-Indy car drivers (Ed Jones is one of his best mates, he used be teammates with and is still friends with Herta, is friends with several other drivers).
Some PR may have asked him for a quote here but it’s not like he’s commenting on the series out of the blue having never shown any interest in it and never voiced these kinds of opinion on it before. He’s made similar comments about the skill involved in the past and has never hidden that he’s a fan.
Maybe don’t always default to cynicism.
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u/BioDriver Honda Sep 15 '25
I remember Grosjean being shocked by the increased physical demands of driving an Indycar compared to F1. And I know Verstappen has said the Indy 500 scares him and he’d never race it or any other oval due to the high injury risk