Formula Journal

From Lando No-wins, to contender for the championship title, from wearing skinny jeans to £12,000 jeans made by American Streetwear brand Chrome Hearts. McLaren F1 Team driver Lando Norris, being 1 of the 20 fastest drivers in the world, is photographed often. So lets take a look at his style evolution from 6 years ago when he was a rookie to now.

In 2019 Lando was a little Brit boy, a little fish in a big pond. As many drivers do he repped the McLaren merch every race weekend (bright papaya t-shirt or jumper) and paired it with skinny jeans, whilst wearing his papaya cap backwards. His colour palette consisted of orange and black almost 100% of the time.

Lando launched Quadrant in 2020, the gaming and lifestyle brand co-founded by Lando and his best friend and former racing driver Max Fewtrell. Quadrant merges Lando’s love for gaming, content and apparel, consisting of basic t-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts. It was nothing special, in fact exactly what you would expect for merch. He began incorporating Quadrant merch into his race day outfits, occasionally mixing it with McLaren attire. 

2021 Lando, still an avid McLaren merch fan, frequently entered the paddock in casual clothes, still skinny jeans, sometimes ripped ones, horrific I know. However after passing through the paddock and ensuring he was photographed, he’d quickly change into team wear for press conferences and track walks. 

We began seeing a change in 2022. He was interviewed by fashion magazine, Vanity Fair, along with other drivers. Styled by Micheal Darlington he sported some big names; Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and even a Tiffany & Co brooch. It seemed after tasting luxury fashion he was hooked. Not only was he wearing luxury brands he was partnering with them, launching a watch with one of McLaren’s sponsors, Richard Mille, which he is frequently seen wearing. These luxury watches, have a starting price of $80,000! Not only did he collaborate with RM he also collaborated with luxury baggage company Tumi to create his own baggage collection, the colour palette still black and orange. 

After 4 years dressed in the same look Lando walked into the 2023 paddock with a goatee. People say hair changes everything about a person and this was once again proven correct. Lando’s wardrobe consisted of Drew (Justin Bieber’s clothing brand), trading McLaren merch for classic quarter zips or crisp button ups and even luxury designer brand Loewe. Quadrant launched a new collection called The Club Athletic Collection which he modelled, whilst playing golf, a very classy aesthetic. The collection included rugby shirts and quarter zips, very different from the stereotypical merch drops. 

July 2024 Vogue published an article about Lando being the next fashion icon of Formula 1. Could he be following in the ultimate fashion icon, Lewis Hamilton’s footsteps? The year of his maiden win with more and more attention being drawn to him, his jeans got baggier and baggier. Yes he finally ditched the skinny ripped jeans. His bad-boy street style became more apparent with backwards caps or beanies and baggy jeans. Many of his outfits were still all black or dark but now he was beginning to wear his clothes with style and swagger. 

Coming into the 2025 season Lando is a serious contender for the championship and his style has never been better. He entered the Japanese paddock with Levis X Chrome Hearts jeans at a cost of up to £12,000, this obviously caught lots of fans attention and they began to realise how much his style had evolved. Also Lando walked through the Bahrain Paddock in a Casablanca (contemporary fashion brand) crochet cardigan, and paired it with Rhode X McLaren shorts. Still wearing team merch but in a subtle way and making it his own. 

Additionally in 2025 Quadrant had a makeover and launched The Make Your Mark Campaign, which featured a new logo. The new launch focuses on quality, and not quantity, with fewer – but elevated drops. The brand is set to have stands at motorsport events so fans can purchase the new drops first. Their first drop was inspired by the Japanese car scene, and included hoodies, bandanas and the Moto jersey which is a best-seller (though it’s a bit pricey at £110).The most recent drop The Blueprint, mirrors Lando’s street style, with basic tanks, baby tees and hoodies in neutral tones, styled with an edge and paired with jorts, which have been all the rage, or baggy jeans. 

Lando is now one of F1’s fashion icons, often sporting designer brands. He easily switches from a classy, clean ensemble with a cashmere jumper, to a bad-boy, wearing a “play-boy” co-ord on the streets of Monaco. His brand Quadrant has reflected his change in style from simple merch hoodies to a streetwear brand. Similarly his brand LN4 which is his Official Merch Store launched a collection specifically for his home race of Silverstone this year (he also took over a grandstand and made it high-vis green replicating his helmet). The collection included a jersey with his high-vis green blob print, which went viral with the help of artist Tate McRae who created a song for the F1 movie ‘Just Keep Watching’. She posted a TikTok wearing the jersey whilst lip-syncing to her song and it now has over 13 million views and 1.9 million likes! It’s safe to say that the jersey is flying off the shelves.

Who knows we might see Max Verstappen following in his footsteps.

Image: Quadrant