Lando Norris has been recognised for his maiden Formula 1 world championship triumph after claiming the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award at a ceremony in Madrid on Monday, 20 April.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old McLaren driver saw off competition from darts sensation Luke Littler and 2024-25 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to secure the prestigious honour, joining an illustrious list of recent previous winners that includes Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu and Patrick Mahomes.<\/p>\n
Norris secured his first F1 drivers’ title at the 2025 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December, finishing third to clinch the championship by just two points from four-time drivers’ champion Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
The Briton recorded seven victories and seven pole positions across the 24-round campaign, with wins including his home British Grand Prix and a decisive triumph in Brazil that propelled him to the championship lead heading into the final three rounds.<\/p>\n
The award recognises breakthrough performances in sport, celebrating athletes whose first significant success transforms their careers.<\/p>\n
Norris became the 35th driver to claim the F1 world championship and delivered McLaren’s first drivers’ title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Laureus ceremony at Madrid’s Glass Gallery at Cibeles Palace saw tennis star Carlos Alcaraz named Sportsman of the Year, whilst Paris Saint-Germain claimed Team of the Year \u2014\u00a0a category in which McLaren was nominated \u2014 following their Champions League triumph.<\/p>\n
Norris faced a stellar field of nominees. Littler, 19, won the PDC World Darts Championship in January 2025 to become the youngest world champion in darts history, whilst Oklahoma City Thunder guard Gilgeous-Alexander also led his side to the NBA championship and won Finals MVP honours.<\/p>\n
The other nominees were Paris Saint-Germain winger D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9, Brazilian tennis player Jo\u00e3o Fonseca, who became the first Brazilian to win an ATP 500 tournament, and Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi.<\/p>\n
Norris joins fellow F1 drivers Juan Pablo Montoya (2002), Hamilton (2008), Jenson Button (2010), Daniel Ricciardo (2015) and Nico Rosberg (2017) as winners of the Breakthrough of the Year award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has been recognised for his maiden Formula 1 world championship triumph after claiming the Laureus World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-621985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1-calendar","12":"tag-f1-live","13":"tag-f1-results","14":"tag-f1-standings","15":"tag-ferrari","16":"tag-formula-1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-max-verstappen","19":"tag-motor","20":"tag-motor-sports","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-motosport","23":"tag-motosports","24":"tag-racing","25":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}