F1's Golden Boy, Fan Edits, and Dinner Parties!!

How Norris Embodies Formula One’s Next Era

Hi there! Welcome to Track Limits, a weekly newsletter where we break down the biggest headlines in F1 and explore the questions, topics, and trends that are shaping the sport. Nothing is off-topic and a little fun is always part of the mix!!

Good Evening!! The season is over, the ground-effect era is done, and a new champion has been crowned!! Was it a chaotic, nail-biting final lap kind of race? No, some would even call it one of the most unremarkable championship-defining races. But hey, it got the job done!!

So now what do we do?!! If you are dreading the winter blues, don’t worry — not only are there other motorsport series in full swing, but this off-season is ridiculously short!! Pre-season testing kicks off in January, and teams will start dropping their liveries shortly after — including during the Super Bowl!!

And although 2025 was draining, I can’t wait to dive into the new technical regulations, a whole new 11-team season, and the exciting changes coming to Track Limits!!!

The last week of the season was dominated by the championship battle, but that didn’t mean the usual end-of-the-year shenanigans didn’t hit our feed!!

3. FIA Presidential Election While the FIA’s presidential election technically happened yesterday, the result was already known. For several months now, the only eligible candidate was the sitting president, Ben Sulayem — not because no one else wanted the job, but because a handful of very constraining and odd rules cleared the ballot of everyone but him.

One of the other candidates, Laura Villars, decided she wasn’t going to sit back and take it, so she took the FIA to court, arguing that the federation’s democratic standards weren’t being upheld. I mean, you don’t need a law degree to spot that one!!

Last Wednesday, the French court decided the case couldn’t be fast-tracked and a full trial will be needed — with the first day set for early February. So… what does that mean for yesterday’s election? Although Villars couldn’t stop the election from going ahead, if she wins her case, the FIA might be ordered to run it again. When and how that will look like I don’t know. But one thing is sure, this presidential election is far from being done and over with!!!

2. Dinner Parties!! Ever since Vettel brought everyone together for that iconic farewell dinner in 2022, the grid has kept the tradition going. Tense championship rivalries, surprise goodbyes, rookies who barely know where to sit — it doesn’t matter!! The last race weekend of the year ALWAYS starts with a fancy driver dinner and this year was no different. Sure, we had our first no-shows — Alonso, Lance, and Hülkenberg had prior commitments, how dare they!!! — the group pics still dropped, along with the reveal of who paid for the 17 person Michelin star dinner!!

As expected, the best caption came from Piastri — somehow the more a driver dislikes marketing the best he is at it!! — and Gasly picked up the bill. I kind of want to know how they decide this. Do they pull a name out of a helmet? Does someone just go, “I got it”? Is there a secret spreadsheet?!!

But let’s be honest, the dinner party most of us actually wanted the inside scoop on was the WAGs’ night out!! I don’t know if this is about to become an end-of-season tradition, but several of the ladies got together to celebrate Lily Zneimer — Piastri’s girlfriend — birthday with a very chic, very cute dinner!! There were beautiful illustrations of each WAG in one of their most iconic outfits, plus a copy of “The Little Dictionary of Fashion” by Christian Dior. Amazing, but aren’t birthdays usually when you get gifts??!

That aside, the WAG party completely outshone the drivers’ dinner this year in part because the dynamics between them is still very much a mystery to us!! Could you imagine if we had an E!-style WAGs of Formula One giving us the behind the scenes of the lives of these women?!! Some male fans would have an actual heart attack!!

All in all, how much the internet lost its mind over the WAGs’ soirée pretty much confirms they are fully part of the F1 universe now. And I’m not mad about it at all!!

1. Epic Edits!! I don’t know about you, but in the build-up to Sunday, I was bombarded with some of the most epic edits on TikTok I’ve ever seen!! Fan edits have always been one of my favourite fandom expressions, and the creativity people bring to them honestly blows my mind. But last week, people absolutely outdid themselves!!

They took raw moments — a radio message, a pit stop, a celebration, a tiny look between drivers, a on-track incident — and turned them into full-blown emotional narratives. Giving us drama, romance, tragedy, comedy, all in 30 seconds with a perfect soundtrack!! These aren’t just cool they are able to completely shape how we feel about the season, the drivers or the ongoing storyline — sometimes more than the media or the teams’ PR can!!

And broadcasters have noticed the power of the format. So much so, that these last promo videos from Sky and Canal +, for example, featured tighter cuts, cinematic music, moodier lighting, and WAY more emotional storytelling. They were basically fan edits with a high production budget!!

Honorable Mentions This last week we got a wave of new partnership announcements and launches. Haas landed a new title sponsor with Toyota Gazoo Racing. Mercedes added PepsiCo to the lineup, meaning Gatorade, Sting and Doritos are officially part of the Silver Arrows partner ecosystem — for some reason, these two don’t match in my mind, but clearly they have found common ground somewhere!! And McLaren’s new title sponsor, Mastercard, launched Team Priceless — horrible name and even worse tagline. Come on McLaren you can do better!! — an initiative that offers cardholders unprecedented access to the team at several Grand Prix. The way fans can earn this opportunity is to share — a.k.a post — how much they love the team. Once again, not really a fan of this format that calls on people to “perform their fandom”. Nevertheless, it’s exciting to see team partnerships increasingly focus on delivering real-life, fan-centric experiences.

Sauber said goodbye to Formula One, as did their title sponsor Kick. For some reason, I can already feel the corporate snooze fest of the Audi brand!! Alpine wrapped up their Renault-engine era by having everyone at the Viry-Chatillon facility sign the final power unit, plus they dropped a never-before-seen time-lapse of an F1 car being built from engine to finished track-ready race car — really cool!!

Speaking of Alpine, it looks like Gasly was one of the few drivers keeping the helmet-swap tradition alive this year. He exchanged helmets with Piastri — a very odd friendship, but I’m fully intrigued!! — and with Tsunoda, who also swapped with Verstappen as a farewell gesture. We also had the usual end-of-season class photos, though the only one worth mentioning was Mercedes, who said goodbye to Bottas in a fun “family picture”. How that team plans to stay fun or remotely relevant without him is a mystery to me!!

The F1 movie somehow received several award nominations — two Golden Globes and seven Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade and I’m fully aware of the amount of work that goes into a mega project like that. But I couldn’t help wondering if the F1 Movie was seriously the best cinema had to offer this year?!! After a closer look, though, it all made sense — the nominations were for sound, editing, composition, and cinematography!! Yay, there is still hope for the seventh art!!

Of course, we can’t wrap up this year’s shenanigans without talking about the championship celebrations. A tradition demands, the champagne was sprayed, the family hugged, the girlfriend kissed, and the friends went wild!! It all looked emotional, chaotic, fun, and honestly exhausting. But if you’re going to wake up with an epic hangover, it might as well be because your childhood dream finally came true!! Which his post-celebration photo dump confirmed with the caption, “Lifetime of work went into this hangover”!!

I have to give Albon a shoutout, because as always, he delivered the funniest congratulations post to Norris with the caption: “My grandma is going to be so happy!!” Peak Albon, never change!!! Oh, since we are talking about the British-Thai driver, he made a video for the Williams sponsor Komatso, where he reviews an excavator! Do I need one? No. Am I remotely interested in heavy equipment? Not at all. Did I watch the full video and thought to myself, “Okay, if I ever need an excavator, I know which one I'll pick” Yes, I did!!! That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of Albon!!!

Oh, almost forgot!! What happened to the grid’s Secret Santa? I remember seeing photos of the drivers pulling names out of a Santa hat, but I haven’t seen any videos yet. Did they decide to drop them closer to Christmas? Has that always been the case? Why can’t I remember it— or even find it?!! Clearly, I’ve officially hit my shenanigans limit this season!!

F1’s Golden Boy!!

Since securing the championship, Norris’ journey to achieving his childhood dream has been the subject of epic narrations, critical analyses, and emotional fan edits. While this contextualizes the moment, there has been little discussion of how his victory fits into the broader context of McLaren and Formula One.

ZOOMING OUT:

The days when elite athletes were valued solely for their athletic performance and name recognition are increasingly behind us. Today, athletes have evolved into multifaceted figures who extend far beyond competition. They are brands, investors, entrepreneurs, content creators, philanthropists, and tastemakers, actively shaping and driving the industry forward.

Once merely participants in the world of sports, athletes are now the business of sport, and the reason millions of fans and thousands of organisations worldwide invest their time and money in the industry. This is especially true for champions.

But not every championship-winning athlete is the same, and not every era in a sport benefits from the same type of de facto ambassador. We have seen examples of this in Formula One’s recent history.

Hamilton was a modern champion by every definition. He used his on-track success to transform Mercedes, giving the team cultural relevance and global visibility by being the bridge between Formula One, fashion, music, and cinema. At the same time, he pushed the team to lead the sport on social initiatives, backing efforts such as the Hamilton Commission and his foundation, Mission 44. Together, these contributions shaped Mercedes’ brand and strengthened its commercial appeal — while making Formula One impossible to ignore in places that had never paid attention before, but that the sport desperately needed to stay afloat.

On the opposite end is Verstappen, an old-school champion who sits firmly inside the boundaries of motorsport. He doesn’t need — or want — to be anything other than a driver, and his brand reflects that. For the past four years, that has been exactly what Formula One needed. As Liberty Media took over and began reshaping the sport, a dominant, straightforward, solely dedicated to on-track performance champion provided stability as its commercial identity and strategy were being rebuilt. Not even Red Bull required Verstappen to be anything but a driver, since they already benefited from a strong legacy and an iconic identity.

But this current moment in Formula One is very different.

The commercial rights holder's vision for the sport’s next phase centers around engaging young audiences in key markets, embracing sportainment, and building bridges with other industries to grow the sport’s global footprint and open new entry points. As a result, Formula One is no longer just a racing championship. It’s a platform where personality, storytelling, pop culture fluency, and the ability to forge strong emotional connections are core assets.

McLaren was one of the first teams that understood this shift in strategy. Seven years ago, the team was the least profitable in the sport, reporting a $137 million operating loss and sitting on the brink of bankruptcy. Once a benchmark of excellence, McLaren had become a fallen giant, struggling with a corporate, outdated image — much like Formula One at the time. Today, the team is a global brand, second in constructors’ championship titles alongside Williams, valued at almost $5 billion, and has the largest sponsor portfolio in the sport. It has become a true racing universe stretching across IndyCar, esports, endurance, Formula E, and Extreme E. (Though the team recently exited these last series.)

A strategic turnaround made possible not just by improved on-track performance and commercial diversification, but through a deep understanding of the modern motorsport audience and how to engage them. Transforming McLaren into master storytellers, innovators in fan-first content and activations, while embracing a fun and relatable voice. No McLaren driver embodied this shift more than Norris.

While many drivers have struggled to communicate who they are, what they stand for, and why fans or brands should care, Norris has mastered it. And he isn’t limiting his personal brand to Formula One. He is expanding into gaming, lifestyle, fashion, media, and mental health advocacy — all while staying true to his essence of being playful, irreverent, youthful, digital-first, and relatable. Combined with a strong visual identity — the neon yellow with black blobs — it becomes clear Norris is operating in a different league when it comes to brand strategy.

Making it no coincidence he has one of the largest fandoms in Formula One and is one of only two drivers featured on SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes in the world — a ranking that assesses which athletes offer the most value to brands.

In this context, the Brit is more than a remarkable athlete — he is the ideal champion for Formula One’s next era. One in which winning on track matters as much as the story and the human behind it. Where an athlete’s willingness to connect with fans drives commercial value, their ability to engage with culture creates relevance, and their desire to have a voice pushes the sport’s values towards the future.

This means Norris’ youthful and trailblazing brand, exceptional marketability, relatable persona, and unique ability to bridge audiences and generations aren’t just traces of Hamilton’s blueprint for a modern champion. They signal Norris’ relevance and position him as the only driver today who fits the direction Liberty Media is taking Formula One.

The question now becomes: how long can Formula One count on Norris as its champion and the defining figure of the sport?

The content I enjoyed the past week!!

🗞 READ

How ‘F1: The Movie’ Was Filmed at Real Grand Prix Races | Formula 1’s Highest-Paid Drivers 2025 | The invisible race: why Formula 1 teams need cybersecurity partners | Why does everyone want Cadillac F1 to be un-American? | F1 and FIA announce new Concorde Agreement signed with teams through 2030

🎧 LISTEN

F1 Beyond The Grid: Toto Wolff + Hywel Thomass Race Towards 2026 | The F1 Rookies’ Season Review! | F1 Beyond The Grid: Laura Mueller + Esteban Ocon on Their Race Engineer Driver Dynamic | The F1 Show: The Champion is Decided | The Best of VCARB Socials! | Inside Max Verstappen’s World: Formula 1, Fatherhood, and Racing Legends!

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Photo Credit: McLaren Racing