Lando Norris will run the number ‘1’ on his McLaren next season as the sport says goodbye to the ‘4’ and welcomes the return of the ’33’, although Max Verstappen could yet change to ‘3’.
Norris won the World title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, his P3 enough to ensure he took the title from race winner Max Verstappen by two points, ending the Red Bull driver’s four-year reign.
Lando Norris: It’s there for a reason
His championship success means Norris can, if he wants, put the number ‘1’ on his McLaren next season.
And it’s a decision that he easily made.
“It’s tradition,” he told Sky Sports News. “It’s there for a reason. It’s there because you can go and try grab it and you can work hard to try and get it.
“All of us as a team that gets to have a role in McLaren, or my car, will get to wear that with pride. It’s all my mechanics, my engineers, everyone that’s part of McLaren gets to have that acknowledgement too.
“So it’s not for me, it’s for them as well. It’s their pride, knowing that they put a lot of work and effort into everything that they can also go ‘we’re number one’. It’s not as cool when you say ‘we are number four’ so they will be even happier than I am!”
That means the number ‘4’ will disappear from the grid for a year, perhaps even longer, but the ’33’ will be back.
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That was Verstappen’s number before he won his first World Drivers’ Championship in 2021.
The Red Bull driver, though, has made it known that if he can, he’d rather run Daniel Ricciardo’s former number ‘3’.
Verstappen had wanted the number ‘3’ on his car when he joined Formula 1, but Ricciardo was already running with it on his car, leaving the then-teenager to run with his second choice.
Last month, though, the F1 Commission announced a pending change that would allow the drivers to change their racing numbers rather than stick to their initial choice. The exact mechanism of this proposal is yet to be decided.
“Changes to the regulation on permanent competition numbers for drivers, introduced for the 2014 season, were discussed. It was agreed that a proposal for drivers to change their numbers during their career would be permitted,” read the notes.
It paves the way for a driver to change to a number that was previously taken when they started their F1 careers.
That number for Verstappen is the number ‘3’, which he would like to run next season should he lose the World title and the number ‘1’ from his Red Bull racer.
Prior to winning the title for the first time in 2021, Verstappen had doubled up with ’33’.
“I do indeed have to get approval, so it’s a good question what number I will drive with next year,” he told De Telegraaf of his plans for his F1 2026 race number.
Since 2014, the Formula 1 drivers have run a chosen number that was theirs for their entire career.
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