Lando Norris and the top 10 most experienced McLaren racers in F1

Lando Norris will become the most experienced McLaren Formula 1 racer at the Qatar Grand Prix, when he begins his 151st event for the team.

He has spent his entire career with McLaren, joining its young driver programme in 2017, before stepping up to a race seat aged just 19 in 2019.

Here’s some of the illustrious names he has now surpassed given his longevity with the reigning Constructors’ Champions.

10. Denny Hulme – 86 Grands Prix with McLaren

Denny Hulme won the 1967 world title with Brabham, in his third season both with the team and in Formula 1, but opted to join compatriot and friend Bruce McLaren at the relatively new outfit from 1968.

Hulme won six races across as many seasons, though another world title remained elusive, with team mate Emerson Fittipaldi picking up McLaren’s first Drivers’ title in 1974.

Nonetheless, Hulme played a critical role in the continuation and growth of McLaren in the wake of founder Bruce’s untimely death in 1970, and retired on a high in 1974 through his contribution to McLaren’s first Constructors’ title.

9. Kimi Raikkonen – 87 Grands Prix with McLaren

Kimi Raikkonen debuted in Formula 1 with limited experience in 2001 but made an immediate impact for the Sauber team. McLaren won the race for his signature and he replaced compatriot Mika Hakkinen for 2002.

Raikkonen won nine Grands Prix for McLaren during a five-season stint in which he was ferociously fast but was regularly lumbered with cars that lacked reliability. He fell just two points shy of World Champion Michael Schumacher in 2003 and in 2005 was runner-up to Renault’s Fernando Alonso; both took seven wins but a more consistent Alonso scored the crown.

After a win-less 2006 Raikkonen sought pastures new at Ferrari, and ironically snuck through on warring McLaren pair Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to seize his one world title.

8. Fernando Alonso – 94 Grands Prix with McLaren

Fernando Alonso makes the list in spite of his initial McLaren spell lasting just a single sour season. McLaren signed Alonso for 2007 on a three-year deal and he joined as the reigning double World Champion.

But despite victories and a title tilt the relationship proved rocky, with Alonso and McLaren management falling out amid the Spygate scandal. The divorce was swift and desired by both sides.

But seven years later there was an unlikely and amicable recoupling, with Alonso rejoining just as Honda arrived as power unit partner. It didn’t go well. Alonso wasn’t shy about highlighting Honda’s lack of performance and reliability, and a switch to Renault power in 2018 exposed some of McLaren’s internal weaknesses.

Alonso’s second McLaren stint was four times as long as the first, but much less successful, as he failed to score a single podium.

7. Ayrton Senna – 96 Grands Prix with McLaren

Is there a more iconic driver/team/livery combination than Ayrton Senna in the red-and-white McLarens?

The Brazilian joined McLaren in 1988 and delivered the title in the devastatingly fast Honda-powered MP4/4, though lost out a year later after coming out on the wrong side of his infamous battle with team mate Alain Prost.

Senna controversially regained the title in 1990, which he retained in 1991, but the rise of Williams blunted Senna’s challenge in 1992/93, despite a handful of against-the-odds victories. Senna upped sticks and joined Williams for 1994, but suffered fatal injuries in a crash at Imola, just three races into his fresh start.

With 35 victories, 46 pole positions and three titles across six seasons, Senna remains McLaren’s most successful Grand Prix racer.

6. Alain Prost – 107 Grands Prix with McLaren

Prost made his Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 1980 but despite scoring a point in his first race it was a rough campaign, and he left for Renault for 1981.

Ahead of 1984 Prost re-joined McLaren, under the leadership of Ron Dennis, and began a fruitful six-year partnership. He was beaten to the championship by team mate Niki Lauda by just half a point that year, but won titles in 1985 and 1986, becoming the first driver since 1960 to successfully defend a championship.

Prost lost out to new team mate Senna in 1988 but fought back in 1989, by which time his relationship with McLaren had deteriorated, and he switched to Ferrari in 1990. But his record of 30 wins with McLaren is second only to Senna, and his three titles with the team matches the Brazilian’s feat.

5. Lewis Hamilton – 110 Grands Prix with McLaren

Lewis Hamilton came up through the ranks with McLaren support and he was parachuted into a front-running race seat after back-to-back titles in Formula 3 and the GP2 Series.

He won on only his sixth start and came agonisingly close to claiming the championship as a rookie, missing out to Kimi Raikkonen by a single point after a tumultuous final couple of races.

He made amends a year later, taking the title in the epic 2008 finale, but McLaren misjudged the new regulations in 2009. Hamilton continued to win but McLaren’s inconsistent performances, and the rise of Red Bull, meant further titles proved elusive and he jumped ship for Mercedes in 2013.

His record of 21 wins with McLaren puts him behind only Senna and Prost.

4. Mika Hakkinen – 131 Grands Prix with McLaren

Mika Hakkinen joined McLaren as test driver in 1993, after two years at Lotus, and stepped into a race seat for the final trio of events after the axing of Michael Andretti. The Finn immediately caused a stir when he out-qualified team mate Ayrton Senna at the first attempt.

That high soon gave way to a sequence of lows, which included a one-event ban in 1994, a horrific near-fatal accident in Adelaide in 1995, and a spate of mechanical failures, including several while leading.

Finally, at the season finale in 1997 Hakkinen was gifted a breakthrough win, kick-starting a prolific period for driver and team, with Hakkinen crowned champion in 1998 and 1999. He remained with McLaren until the end of 2001 before, aged 33, taking a sabbatical which soon turned into full-time retirement.

3. Jenson Button – 136 Grands Prix with McLaren

Jenson Button signed for McLaren off the back of his fairytale run to the 2009 title with Brawn, and won on only his second start for his new team, mastering the tricky conditions in Australia.

Button finished as championship runner-up in 2011, and scored eight wins in his first three years, but McLaren entered a decline from 2013 that limited his and the team’s results.

Only one more (inherited) podium followed, at the 2014 opener, while Honda’s lacklustre power unit in 2015 worsened the situation. Button retired from Formula 1 after 2016, though made one last appearance in Monaco in 2017 as a stand-in for the Indianapolis 500-bound Fernando Alonso.

2. David Coulthard – 150 Grands Prix with McLaren

McLaren’s most-experienced driver – until now – spent nine seasons with the team, between 1996 and 2004, taking 12 of his 13 career victories for the team, following his start at Williams.

The Scot took the first win of the McLaren-Mercedes era in 1997 but when McLaren delivered a title-winning machine it was team mate Hakkinen who swept to glory. Coulthard secured a best championship finish of runner-up in 2001 – he was a very distant second to Michael Schumacher – while after 2003 it was confirmed that he would be replaced by Juan Pablo Montoya for 2005.

After 150 races with McLaren, Coulthard joined Red Bull, where he spent four more years before retiring.

1. Lando Norris – 150 Grands Prix with McLaren

Lando Norris will overtake Coulthard as McLaren’s most experienced racer this weekend in Qatar – a statistic that still seems unfathomable considering his relative youth.

Norris first began his association with the team as a 17-year-old in 2017, and became its youngest racer when he stepped up to a race seat in 2019, impressing from the outset as McLaren began to emerge from the doldrums.

A first podium arrived in 2020 but, despite a few near-misses, that first win remained elusive amid the dominance of Max Verstappen.

Finally, in Miami last year, Norris landed a breakthrough victory, while McLaren’s return to regular front-running contention means the Briton is already into double-digit territory for both wins and pole positions. Could he soon become the first man since Lewis Hamilton to win the Drivers’ crown for McLaren?