McLaren has finally put the footage out there: Lando Norris threading a 750S through the Nürburgring Nordschleife, on a day that was supposed to be about tyre work and quietly getting on with the job.
The run happened during Formula 1’s calendar break, after Norris had been at the Nürburgring in April for Pirelli testing on the Grand Prix circuit — the layout F1 last used in 2020. But it’s the extra-curricular lap that’s done the rounds, because it’s Norris doing something drivers talk about constantly and rarely get to do properly: the Nordschleife, for real, in traffic, with all the messy unpredictability that comes with it.
There’s an immediacy to the onboard that you don’t always get from polished team content. As Norris rolls towards the pit exit he’s already dealing with the reality of “Touristenfahrten” — the Nordschleife opening to the public — and he has to wait, slightly incredulous, for a gap before Turn 1. The first big reaction comes instantly: a very honest “holy s***” when he realises he’s not being released into empty track, but into whatever the Nürburgring has decided to throw at him today.
And then the best bit: it isn’t reverential, hushed “Green Hell” mythology. Norris is laughing, chatting, pointing things out, clearly buzzing off the whole absurdity of it. At one point he clocks a Skoda family car circulating and, through the window, labels the driver a “legend” — then doubles down with “you’re my hero” as he goes by. It’s the sort of moment that lands because it’s so normal: one of the sport’s front-line drivers sharing tarmac with someone who’s turned up in their daily.
The lap builds to the expected highlight at the Caracciola-Karussell, the banked concrete bowl that every sim racer knows by heart. Norris’ grin says everything before he even gets the words out: “I’ve always wanted to do this.” When he eventually pulls back into the pit lane, he frames it exactly how most racing drivers do when they’re not performing for a microphone — a “bucket list” item, now ticked off, and one he clearly doesn’t want to overcomplicate.
Later, speaking at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris didn’t hide how much he enjoyed it. “Honestly, it was the most fun I’ve had all year,” he said, and the reason matters. He’s not discovering the place from scratch; he’s connecting a track he’s known for years through Gran Turismo and iRacing with the physical reality — the cambers, the blind crests, the way the circuit never quite settles.
“I’ve known the Nordschleife from the simulator for years,” Norris explained. “It’s one of those tracks that everyone wants to drive. Whether you’re a racing driver or not – it’s always cool to do it because it’s so unique.
“In my McLaren, it was scary and fun at the same time. But the Nordschleife is a track where you can have a lot of fun with any car.”
That line — scary and fun at the same time — is basically the Nordschleife in seven words. It’s also a neat reminder that, for all the professionalism and routine of modern F1, the drivers are still wired like drivers. Give them something iconic, something slightly uncontrolled, and the kid comes out.
McLaren also released separate footage of Oscar Piastri taking on the same strip of tarmac, though in very different conditions. Where Norris got the more playful, chatty edit, Piastri’s lap came with the sort of dry understatement that suits both him and the weather: wet, cold, and “sketchy as f***”.
“Turns out when it’s wet and cold, it’s very, very, very slippery,” Piastri noted in an earlier McLaren video — which might be the most Australian way possible of summarising a circuit that can bite even in perfect conditions.
Put the two clips together and you get a nice little snapshot of what McLaren’s got right now: drivers comfortable enough to be themselves on camera, and a team happy to show the human stuff in the gaps between grands prix. F1’s calendar rarely leaves much room for spontaneity these days, which is probably why a simple lap — not a record attempt, not a PR stunt dressed up as one — lands as well as it does.
And if Norris calling a Skoda driver his hero doesn’t sum up the Nordschleife’s strange magic, nothing will.
