{"id":176384,"date":"2025-12-10T01:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176384\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T01:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:32:15","slug":"f1-news-why-new-zealand-is-celebrating-champion-lando-norris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176384\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Why New Zealand is celebrating champion Lando Norris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Why
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLando Norris was just 16 years old when he won the Toyota Racing Series. Image: Bruce Jenkins<\/p>\n

Norris\u2019 first single-seater championship triumph outside of Great Britain came in New Zealand, winning the then-known Toyota Racing Series in 2016.<\/p>\n

That year, he beat Force India junior Jehan Daruvala to the championship. New Zealand\u2019s Brendon Leitch was third.<\/p>\n

Norris won six races that season, culminating in taking out the New Zealand Grand Prix \u2013 one of only two grands prix officially recognised by the FIA outside of Formula 1.<\/p>\n

His Toyota Racing Series win was the first of three major titles that year, as Norris went on to win two Formula Renault gongs in Europe.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s now known as the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy has long run with the slogan \u2018Finding New Zealand\u2019s Next World Champion\u2019 \u2013 and now it has one.<\/p>\n

Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand motorsport manager Nicolas Caillol was part of Norris\u2019 winning effort in 2016.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAfter a massive 2025 F1 championship that saw a three-way fight right down to the wire by Lando, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, it\u2019s a great honour to be able to say one of our graduates is the Formula 1 world champion,\u201d said Caillol.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for us, that is mission accomplished. Well, part one at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n

Lando Norris at Hampton Downs during the 2016 Toyota Racing Series.<\/p>\n

With Norris among its alumni, Caillol is keen for New Zealand\u2019s premier single-seater series to achieve its ultimate goal of producing a home-grown Formula 1 champion.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s only Formula 1 champion remains Denny Hulme, who won the 1967 title for Brabham.<\/p>\n

The little island nation of five million has produced just a handful of Formula 1 drivers. Its most successful trio remains Hulme, Bruce McLaren, and Chris Amon.<\/p>\n

Only Brendon Hartley and Liam Lawson have made it to the top in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart two of the story, of course, is for our championship to produce New Zealand\u2019s next world champion, and in Formula 1 that has been a very long time indeed,\u201d said Caillol.<\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n

Lando Norris won the 2016 New Zealand Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Denny Hulme won the title, for Australian Jack Brabham\u2019s eponymous team, it was 1967.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been New Zealand racers in F1 since of course, from Bruce McLaren, Howden Ganley and Chris Amon to Mike Thackwell and more recently Brendon Hartley.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it\u2019s another former Toyota Racing Series champion, Liam himself, who holds the best chance of fulfilling part two of the mission \u2013 to be New Zealand\u2019s next world champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd while we enjoy watching him compete at the highest level and strive for the top of the mountain, we\u2019ll continue to provide one of the best junior formula championships in the world where the very best rising stars of the single-seater world can make a giant stride towards a seat in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may well have a future F1 champion after our 2026 championship which begins in a month, and who knows, that F1 champion could be a Kiwi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lando Norris\u2019 road to Formula 1<\/p>\n

2015 \u2013 MSA Championship winner
2016 \u2013 Toyota Racing Series winner
2016 \u2013 Formula Renault Eurocup winner
2016 \u2013 Formula Renault Northern European Cup winner
2017 \u2013 FIA European Formula 3 Championship winner
2018 \u2013 FIA Formula 2 Championship runner-up<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris was just 16 years old when he won the Toyota Racing Series. Image: Bruce Jenkins Norris\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4260,111,139,69,1732,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-176384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-lando-norris","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-slot4","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}