> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Why Norris has started his own racing team - URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-f1-champion-lando-norris-started-own-racing-team/ - Published: 2026-09-03T16:33:22.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-03T16:33:22.000Z - Description: F1 world champion Lando Norris explains the logic for creating his own racing team and driver development scheme - Author: Josh Suttill - Tags: Formula 1, Business, Junior, #lando-norris Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris has explained the logic for creating his own racing team and driver development scheme - the first of which had "over a few hundred job requests" within an hour of being announced. Ahead of the Italian GP, [Norris launched LN4 Fusion](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/norris-sets-up-racing-team-with-ex-prema-chief/) \- a single-seater racing team that will compete in Formula 4, Formula 3 and (pending approval) Formula 2 - as well as the separate LN4 Legacy Programme, a talent scheme led by ex-Alpine sporting director Julian Rouse. On Thursday at Monza, Norris explained how it had happened earlier in his career than he thought was possible. "I wouldn't say we've \[Norris and his personal team\] ever spoken about it properly, but we've always kind of thought it would be a cool idea to do at some point," Norris explained. "I probably didn't think it'd be something I'd do this early on. Certain things came together, and certain groups came together. Opportunities arose from that. "It's been a lengthy process from when we started to speak about it, which was already last year, into turning it into a thing this year. So I don't know if that's a long time or not in terms of creating something like this. "But I think the main thing is, we've just got a lot of pretty experienced people from kind of all directions. We've been able to piece things together pretty quickly, I would say. That's been a great thing." ## 'Hundreds of applications' Norris's new racing team has already received strong interest, as it looks to rapidly build up teams to compete across F1's junior ladder. "The reactions have been great. I know \[LN4 Fusion team principal\] Rene \[Rosin\] said he got over a few hundred job requests within an hour or so of the announcement," Norris added. "There's a lot of attraction from a range of drivers, but also mechanics, engineers, all the people that make a team, a big team. I'm proud as an individual, but also proud that we've been able to put something very special together." Norris already has a strong recruit in team principal Rosin, who took the Prema team that his father co-founded to the majority of its 40-plus championship titles, before the family's sudden exit last year. Prior to that, Prema was the benchmark team on the ladder, and one which Norris spent a lot of his pre-F1 career racing against - breaking Prema's six-year F3 title streak with Carlin in 2017. "A lot of the guys are people I've known for a long time. I've known Rene for many years, and I have raced against Prema since F4, so back in 2015," Norris recalled. "I've known of him very well, and I know him personally reasonably well, and so do my team around me. "So we wanted to put together a group that is experienced and knows how to lead a team - and not just create one good team, whether that's just in F3 or just in F2, but be able to put together a project and something long-term, know how to bring people together. "I've also been able to experience over the course of the last seven years what makes a good leader, what makes a good team, and a lot of it starts with the person at the very top, and he is that person. "Just a very nice guy, a guy you can just enjoy having a good chat with, but a guy who also loves doing what he does, which is winning and creating a successful team, bringing people together, maximising things. "So he was the inevitable choice at the end of the day. He was available, and he was the guy we wanted." Norris's McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who won his F3 and F2 titles with Prema, said: "I've got great memories with Rene, the Rosin family at Prema as well. "I can't really speak highly enough of that family as people and also the success they're able to have. "I'm certainly not expecting that team to be slow, that's for sure." Another Prema F1 graduate, Ollie Bearman, called it a "cool initiative" and said: "He's picked a very good person to run the team in Rene. "He led the most successful junior team in history. So really nice to see him back. "I'm really happy about that, and I hope he can also continue that legacy for himself, for his father as well, for his family. It's something really, really cool." ## How does he have time? Williams driver Alex Albon expressed surprise at how Norris is able to fit in such a big project while racing. "Yes, I would," Albon said when The Race asked him if he'd like to do something similar. "It's impressive in many ways, because I feel like I've got way too much on my plate, just trying to do this sport, never mind other championships as well. "But it's very cool to do. I think it's noble to see his work being put back into the roots of it all. "Whether that's sooner rather than later, I don't know, but I'd love to do something - maybe not race teams, but working out a way to help kids either get better or get their chances in motorsports." For Norris, it's all about the strong team that he has around him - the same team that enabled him to pull off a successful 'Landostand' at the British Grand Prix and other off-track activities. They ensure Norris can still focus on his day job while maximising his branding - the striking dayglow yellow - and him being a big draw which can bring investors to the table. "A lot of this stuff goes on in the background," Norris said. "I've also been able to really focus on just doing my own job and focus on driving fast. "So I'm pleased that it can be something that can run very separately to me. "We have great people running the whole thing, but I can also just be part of it when I'm able to. It's been great." ## Helping drivers one-by-one Alongside the racing team is the LN4 Legacy Programme that is more focused on picking out young drivers and taking them all the way to F1. "The Legacy Programme is more to pick out individuals, people that I believe can get to F1, and we believe can get to F1, and try and help them one at a time," Norris said. "That's our initial goal, when you say hundreds of thousands, you're still talking about millions of dollars to help one person. "When you say to help a much bigger group, you're talking about needing a lot more money. We've got to start somewhere, and I'm happy that I'm trying to help at least one to begin with, and then we'll work on two, and then three, and then four, and five. "But the bigger project is not just what one thing can one driver do? If you want to help bigger areas and economies that are just worse to start racing and allow people to start their dream, it's much bigger than just me doing my job and trying to help out on that. "That takes the sport itself, that takes a lot more work from F1, from FIA, from karting companies. It's just simply too expensive, so you cannot rely on people just to fund more people. You have to find other ways to make it more friendly for people to start racing, especially financially. "You've got to lower the costs somehow of teams, of the ability to go testing, of just signing up to do F2\. F2 is over $2million, or €2m I think, to start. You've got to start somewhere. "My ability is starting with one, and that's already a big project, and I think bigger than what people expect, but I want to expand on that. That takes time. "Obviously, I have my own go-kart. I know other drivers, and Daniel \[Ricciardo\] and so forth have started projects to get more kids into racing. That's certainly my plan, but this is the beginning of it. "With time and with more partners coming on board, and more money, more support, we can turn it into a way of helping more people from around the world." ## Norris isn't the only one... Plenty of drivers like Albon expressed an interest in doing something similar, but one driver is forming their own driver development project: Cadillac's Sergio Perez. "It's really nice what Lando has done. From my side, I'm also at the point of my career that I would like to do something," Perez said. "I'm preparing something with my manager, Khalil \[Beschir\], for the near term. "We will be able to share that in the next few months - but we are definitely working on something from our side because we would like to give back to the sport and help the younger generations as well."