Behind the wheel with Lando Norris

IT’S ONLY FITTING that Lando Norris FaceTimes me from inside a car. But no, it’s not his exclusively commissioned McLaren, and this isn’t a Grand Prix. Instead, I’m catching the Formula One driver on his day off, and there’s a lot more to the guy behind the wheel.

Besides the fact that Norris partakes in the highest class of international formula racing, he’s a pretty chilled-out 23-year-old. “I’m a hoodie guy so my closet is really just full of hoodies,” Norris tells me. “I don’t know why, but it’s probably because they give me a mix of comfort and wanting to be a little bit incognito at times. Yeah, I normally just wear that. I’m not too fussy with it.”

The British racer brings his stylistic nonchalance to his latest campaign with Tumi, effortlessly blending together two of his key interests: travelling and racing. Norris says, “I guess it started with McLaren and Tumi is a partner of McLaren. But we wanted to extend that partnership and do something more personal.” He shifts in his seat and continues, “I’ve always been a big fan of design and creativity. I know I’m not the most fashionable person, but I’ve always been into fashion and things like it, so I just think this was a great opportunity to try to bring two different worlds together.”

But there’s a third world about Norris that many people don’t know—the Lando world, the world that exists beyond his work and travel. It’s not every day you get to chat with a Formula One driver, and this one in particular has a lot going on behind the scenes. From his shoe game to his pre-race non-negotiables, Norris fills me in on what it takes to be in the driver’s seat. And off we go.

Three words

I guess there’s three sides to my style. There’s comfort. For me, I always love to travel in comfort so I’m wearing stuff that doesn’t necessarily need to be fashionable, but stuff that I can sleep in. Because I travel so much, I don’t want to feel like I have to uphold how I look. I just want to travel how I want to travel. It’s such a big part of what we do—including my performance and making sure I sleep—so being comfortable is my most important thing. Then there’s the work side of it. Whether I’m at McLaren or at the racetrack, I normally get told what to wear so I’m not really allowed to wear what I want. And then you have the side of going out with my friends. I wouldn’t say I wear the most “out there” clothes, but I like my shoes, and I normally travel with about the 10 to 12 pairs I can fit. Which everyone makes fun of me for. There’s three different worlds that I live in: the work, the comfort, and the fun. For classy wear, I think I’ve got every different colourway of Zegna’s Triple Stitch sneakers. They’re just like a smarter shoe; I can wear them at work, and I can wear them out.

Aesthetic Adventures

It’s been great to get to work with some of the guys from Tumi to introduce racing to luggage and travel, and trying to merge them in a way. We’re adding racing style, performance, and aesthetics to another world through carbon fibre and lightweight materials, which is pretty cool. And I enjoy adding the creativity and the fun into this because I love having inputs and helping improve little things here and there. So yeah, this is what we’ve come out doing, and I’m happy.

Non-Negotiables

Before I race, there are two things I always do. One is that I always have the same food and drinks every single weekend. I rarely change away from what I like so it’s normally the same thing: water and chicken teriyaki with rice, in case you were curious. The second is that every Sunday before the race, I go around and fist bump all of my mechanics. It’s something I have to do. I always make sure I leave time to do this. I don’t think any other driver does it. But for me, I’m very much a team player. I always want to make sure I include the team and wish them luck because they do the pit stops and they manage a lot of other things during the race. So those are the two things that I have to do before I race. If I don’t, then I get a little paranoid. Like I don’t know what’s going to happen if I don’t do these two things.

As a Passenger

If it’s a long, long trip, I have to be a passenger just because I want to be able to sleep. For short trips—like driving to the track in the morning—I’m often quite happy driving because I am a terrible passenger. It’s when the person who’s driving thinks that they’re really good at driving when they’re not. That’s when I start to get a little bit nervous. It’s not that I feel sick or anything, but I just don’t have a lot of confidence in other people. It makes me a little bit nervous that if they’re driving a Formula One driver, that they suddenly think they’re a Formula One driver. That’s the thing that concerns me every now and then.

An Irk

Attitude. I feel like I’m a very down-to-earth, normal kind of guy—not so much because of the position I’m in or who I am or whatever—but just the attitude for me that I see the most within people. That will make me like a person or not like a person the most. The most important trait someone can have is kindness and respect. Then I feel like we’re gonna get along and everything’s gonna be good.

Proudest Moments

I remind myself of the position that I’m in because I know that I’m very lucky to be doing what I’m doing. But at the same time, to achieve some of the most difficult things to achieve in life, to get on the podium…I guess I have not achieved the race win yet; that’s my next goal. The percentage of someone in life achieving these things is so, so tiny. To have the knowledge that I’m one of those people and the amount of work, time, and sacrifice that I’ve put into something to have achieved all of that—I’m just very happy and proud of myself. Specifically, my first podium, and my podium last weekend in Silverstone in front of my home race. Those are things that I’m gonna remember forever.

This article originally appeared on Esquire US.