(Motorsport-Total.com) – Formula 1 World Champion Lando Norris wants to give something back to motorsport and is targeting a central weakness in talent development: the exploding costs.
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The McLaren driver has launched two new projects. With LN4 Fusion, a racing team for junior series is being created, while the LN4 Legacy Programme aims to enable young talents to progress through the entire FIA junior ladder up to Formula 1.
Norris is not just about starting another team in a junior series. Rather, a long-term structure is to be created that allows drivers to advance from their first steps in formula racing to the top class. LN4 Fusion is initially planned to be active in Formula 2, Formula 3, and British Formula 4.
The operational responsibility for the racing team is taken over by Rene Rosin, a well-known name from international junior motorsport. The long-time Prema team principal is to drive the development of LN4 Fusion together with Dan Hazlewood, who is responsible for the British part of the project. For Norris, Rosin is by no means a random choice.
Norris relies on Prema experience
“I have known Rene for many years, since I started racing in single-seater series,” explains Norris. Especially his many years of experience with the successful Prema team made Rosin predestined for the project.
Norris explicitly does not want to simply found a team that is competitive in only one junior series. Instead, LN4 Fusion is to have a long-term structure that connects various levels of formula racing.
“We wanted to assemble a group that is experienced and knows how to run a team,” says the world champion. “It’s not just about building a good team, whether only in Formula 3 or only in Formula 2. It should be possible to build a project and something long-term.”
In recent years, Norris himself has closely experienced what factors make a successful racing team. For him, team leadership plays a particularly important role.
“I have been able to see over the past seven years what makes a good leader and what makes a good team. Much starts with the person at the top – and he is that person.” For Norris, Rosin was therefore the logical choice: “He was the obvious decision.”
Hundreds of applications: Norris project immediately attracts attention
How great the interest in the new racing team already is became clear immediately after the official announcement, according to Norris. Rosin received an enormous number of inquiries in a very short time. “The reactions were great,” reports Norris.
“I know that Rene received more than a few hundred applications within about an hour after the announcement.” The interest apparently is not limited to potential drivers. Numerous mechanics, engineers, and other motorsport staff are said to have contacted LN4 Fusion as well.
For Norris, this response is a sign that the project is attracting interest within the motorsport industry. “There is a great attraction for a whole range of drivers, but also for mechanics, engineers, and all the people who make up a team,” explains the McLaren driver. “I am proud that we were able to put together something very special.”
Alongside LN4 Fusion, Norris pursues an even more personal goal with the LN4 Legacy Programme. While the racing team represents its own motorsport structure, the junior program is intended to specifically support individual drivers who might not have a realistic chance of a career up to Formula 1 without financial help.
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LN4 Legacy: Norris wants to finance talents on the way to Formula 1
“The Legacy Programme is more about selecting individual people – people we believe can make it to Formula 1 – and helping them step by step,” explains Norris. This is where the world champion initially sees the most important task of his program.
However, the financial scope of the project is enormous. Norris does not hide that talent development in modern formula racing now requires sums that many families can no longer afford. The LN4 Legacy Programme therefore starts initially with a single, not yet publicly named junior driver.
However, Norris would like to make the initiative significantly larger. “We have to start somewhere,” he says. “I am glad that I can at least help one driver. After that, we will work on two, then three, four, and five.” In the long term, this could become a much larger support program.
Building such a structure, however, costs considerable sums. “We are talking about amounts of several tens of millions if you want to start such projects,” explains Norris. This requires support from investors and other partners. “This can and will easily be a long-term project.”
Norris calls on FIA and Formula 1 to take action
The 26-year-old therefore sees his own commitment only as a first step. With a racing team and a supported junior driver, he can help concretely, but the fundamental problem of junior series cannot be solved this way.
Because the costs on the way to Formula 1 have risen massively in recent years. Especially the higher categories of the FIA junior ladder are only accessible to many drivers with significant financial means. Norris explicitly points to Formula 2.
“Formula 2 costs more than two million euros, I believe, just to get started,” says Norris. For young drivers without strong financial support, such an amount can practically mean the end of the dream of Formula 1 before the actual career has really begun.
Norris therefore calls not only for more private sponsors but also for structural changes in motorsport. “If you want to support larger areas and regions where it is more difficult to start with racing and enable people to realize their dream, then that is much bigger than just my work and the attempt to help,” he makes clear.
“Simply too expensive”: Norris targets entire junior ladder
From the McLaren driver’s point of view, the costs of entering motorsport must especially be reduced. He holds the entire industry responsible – from the FIA through Formula 1 to karting.
“The sport itself needs this. It requires much more work from Formula 1, from the FIA, and from the karting companies,” says Norris. His central criticism is unmistakable: “It is simply too expensive.”
Finding more wealthy individuals to finance individual junior drivers cannot solve the problem permanently. “You cannot rely on people just financing more people. You have to find other ways to make entry into racing friendlier – especially financially.”
Norris names several areas where action must be taken: the costs for teams, the possibility to carry out test drives, and ultimately also the participation fees of the junior series. Only if the entry barriers are lowered can motorsport become accessible again to a larger group of young talents.