Lando Norris and the feat no one noticed
In the past Formula 1 season, British champion Lando Norris managed to break the so-called “second-place curse behind Max Verstappen.”
F1 is full of records that often go unbroken. For example, Michael Schumacher’s five consecutive world titles remain unmatched, narrowly missed by Lewis Hamilton by half a lap in 2020 and by Max Verstappen by just two points. But in Formula 1, there are also “curses.” One of the most remarkable stretches in recent history is that any driver who finished second overall behind Max Verstappen between 2021 and 2023 never won a race—until Lando Norris came along. Remarkably, this achievement went largely unnoticed.
The first victim, and the most illustrious: Lewis Hamilton
As previously mentioned, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton lost a fierce battle to Max Verstappen at the ill-fated 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After a period of reflection, Hamilton prepared to rebound in the following season, which saw the return of ground-effect cars after a 40-year ban.
However, the Mercedes W13 was immediately plagued by porpoising, making a rematch with Verstappen impossible that year. Things only got worse for Hamilton, who had consistently won at least one race per season since his 2007 debut. In 2022, he ended the year without a single victory. Adding insult to injury, the team’s only win went to his teammate George Russell at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos. Hamilton would not return to the top step until 2024 at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, in a thrilling race full of twists due to variable English weather conditions.
Charles Leclerc and the Singapore heartbreak
In 2022, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc brought the Scuderia back into the title fight, raising hopes for millions of fans. That dream was dashed in France at Le Castellet, where he crashed in a circuit known for its large runoff areas. Verstappen sailed toward his second consecutive title, with Leclerc defending second place against Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez by just three points: 308 for the Monegasque, 305 for the Mexican.
The 2023 season for Leclerc mirrored Hamilton’s previous year: zero wins in 22 races. Verstappen dominated with 19 victories, followed by Pérez’s two wins and Carlos Sainz’s lone triumph in Singapore—the only lapse from Red Bull that year. Leclerc finished fifth, tied on points with Fernando Alonso. Like Hamilton, Leclerc returned to victory in 2024 at his home Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.
Sergio Pérez and the end of his Red Bull chapter
In 2023, Pérez secured two wins in the first four races—Jeddah and Baku—his last victories before Verstappen dominated the championship. In 2024, Pérez, entering the season with four podiums in the first five races, extended his contract with Red Bull at the Monaco GP. From that point, his tenure began to decline: incidents in practice and qualifying strained the budget cap, and he failed to finish in the top five in races. This paved the way for Helmut Marko to bring Liam Lawson into Red Bull. Pérez finished a disappointing eighth in the championship with just 152 points, marking one of the weakest performances by a world champion teammate. After a sabbatical, he returned to F1 with the new Cadillac team.
Lando Norris, the antidote to the second-place curse
The 2024 season began as another year of dominance for Max Verstappen, who won seven of the first ten races. Mid-season, however, Red Bull became vulnerable, with Lando Norris in the McLaren MCL38 emerging as the main challenger. Thanks to upgrades from his engineers, Norris had the fastest car on the grid. Despite Verstappen’s early lead, Norris fiercely resisted the challenge, finishing second in the championship with 374 points to Verstappen’s 437.
In 2025, Lando Norris made history. At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, he claimed victory in challenging weather conditions, finally breaking the “second place behind Max Verstappen” curse. That win was the first of seven that propelled Lando Norris to his maiden Formula 1 World Championship.
The narrative of the “runner-up curse” highlights the immense psychological and technical toll of battling Max Verstappen at the peak of his powers. By winning the opening race of 2025 immediately after his championship defeat, Lando Norris proved that he possesses a level of mental resilience that even icons like Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc struggled to find in the wake of their title heartbreaks. Breaking this cycle was the final hurdle Norris needed to clear to establish himself as a legitimate era-defining champion. As we move further into the 2026 season, the “curse” appears to be a relic of the past, but the lesson remains: to beat the best, you must first survive the disappointment of coming second. For Norris, that survival didn’t just lead to a win; it led to the ultimate prize in motorsport.
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