MONACO -- It's the Wednesday before this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix and Lando Norris is standing on the main deck of a 72-meter superyacht. Coral Ocean, a six-bedroom leviathan that costs $735,000 a week to charter, is moored at Port Hercules' T-Jetty, a berth reserved for the biggest and most lavish yachts over the Monaco race weekend.
As the sun beats down on this most Mediterranean of scenes, Norris' name is being yelled by guests clutching Champagne glasses aboard an adjacent floating palace. Norris, eyes squinting from the glare of Coral Ocean's pristine white hull, appeases his fans with a wave and a smile before turning his attention back to the job at hand.
McLaren sponsor OKX has called upon Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri to pull the covers off a retro-inspired livery that will run on their cars at the next two events. A small crowd of influencers stand with necks craned and iPhones raised to catch the moment the black satin sheet makes way for a subtly modified interpretation of McLaren's trademark papaya paintwork.
As trays of Aperol spritzes and vol-au-vents circle the deck post reveal, Norris, now in his seventh year as a Formula 1 driver, says he's still surprised by the situations he finds himself in.
"I've not done a livery reveal like this before," he tells ESPN when asked if he ever gets used to such scenarios. "I think it's a bit weird, isn't it? But it's cool. It's different. If you asked me back when I was a kid, 'Is this what you dream of?' Well, I don't think I would have said yes because I don't think I would ever have dreamt of this."
Norris, now 25 and a multimillionaire, has owned an apartment not far from Monaco's Port Hercules since 2022, but he still feels strange living in such a rarified environment.
"I still find it weird calling it home, but it is where I live most of the time," he says. "I think everyone will always, and I'll always, know deep down my home is in the UK.
"It's the same for a lot of people, you know? There's a lot of different sports people from tennis, football, lots of different sports, that live here and kind of call it home.
"Yeah, it's nice, it's a beautiful place, I can't complain, but deep down I always know that London is what I love the most."
One aspect of Monaco that Norris has not yet experienced is standing on the top step of the F1 podium at the famous grand prix. This year is undoubtedly his best chance yet after McLaren started 2025 with the fastest car on the grid and he emerged as the bookmakers' favorite for the drivers' championship during preseason.
After a surprise title campaign last year was snuffed out by Max Verstappen with two races left to run, 2025 is the opportunity Norris' entire career -- arguably his entire life -- has been building toward.
"I honestly don't think of it until people bring it up," he says with a smile. "It's not a bad thing, you know, because it's nice to be reminded of it sometimes.
"It's just never my first thought, it's never a thought that I bring with me to approach a weekend, you know? And it's a positive thing, it's a good thing knowing that that's what everyone expects, and that's the case for me.
"When you kind of get reminded or you think about these things, it's a good boost, because you're like, 'Well, this is an opportunity for me to be a world champion,' and that's something that not many people ever get to say. So, it's nice to be reminded of those things, but it's not a thought that I carry with myself."
The season may be only seven races old, but Norris' performances have already come under scrutiny. While Piastri has secured four race wins, taking the lead in the standings from Norris with victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Norris has won only once this year -- at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Defending champion Verstappen has also inserted himself into the title battle with victories in Japan and Imola, meaning Norris is fighting for his first championship on at least two fronts.
But Norris, who finished second in Imola to close the gap to Piastri at the top of the standings to 13 points, is not getting hung up by the mushrooming win counts of his rivals. The focus for Norris at this early stage is on the long game, which includes making the right judgment calls at 200 mph in order to stay out of trouble.
"I know I'm fighting for a championship, and therefore, every now and then you maybe have to make a slightly different decision," Norris adds. "I don't think I've ever been overly conservative, and I've never been overly aggressive. And maybe at times, I need to be able to lean on one more than what I currently do, but a championship is also just who wins [with the most points] at the end.
"It's not who can win the most races. It's not who can be the fastest every weekend. It's not who qualifies on pole or who wins one weekend by the biggest margin. None of that matters. It's only about the points at the end of the season. For me, that's the most important thing to keep in my mind. It's not letting one tricky weekend or one weekend that I don't win frustrate me too much, but to learn from those moments and keep fighting all the way to the end."
Arguably more than any other driver on the grid, Norris is open about the struggles he faces on track. After crashing out of qualifying in Saudi Arabia, he called himself a "f---ing idiot" over team radio, and when asked about the verbal self-flagellation later the same evening, he said he completely agreed with his heat-of-the-moment self-assessment.
To be in the right headspace for the demands of F1, Norris has worked with a sports psychologist for several years. It's a side of his preparation that he has willingly spoken about in the past and one he still finds invaluable.
"It's just making sure I'm thinking of the right things. I'm not telling myself the wrong things," he explains. "I do do that every now and then. I do do that from time to time. I don't reassure myself, probably, enough as I should.
"I think I'm always working on different things. Because driving is not literally, if you just drive the car the quickest, there's a lot of different factors that come into it. Especially when it's a seasonlong thing, it's not just about one weekend."
And Norris remains convinced there's lap time to be found in talking.
"Some people are better than others, naturally or not naturally," he says. "Even though I've had great weekends and things, there's always stuff I feel like I can improve, both on the track and off the track.
"I'm dealing with things better and approaching things in a better mindset. It's just performance, all in all. It's a human performance, it's not just about car performance. I think in every sport, you need both.
"You need to have performance in whatever you do, but you also need to have the right mindset for things. I know that mine is not always perfect, and there's space for me to improve on those things, but there's many different aspects. Sometimes it's just good to have someone to talk to."
For a driver who admitted to a lack of self belief during his debut season in 2019, Norris has come a long way. Even after being outqualified 6-3 by Piastri across sprint and grand prix qualifying sessions this year and being 4-1 down on race victories to his teammate, Norris, who so often is brutally honest about such things, says his confidence remains sky-high.
"I think at the end of the day, now more than ever, even though I still might be disappointed or not satisfied with things, I think deep down I've never had more confidence in myself, more confidence in my own ability, more confidence that I can go out and win than I ever have before," he says. "And that's even with some of my performances that I've had, with some of the struggles in different areas. But I still feel better than I ever have. It's just some of my performances have not been the best I've ever had.
"So again, I'm disappointed when I don't get the maximum out of myself. I'm disappointed when I don't perform well for the team."
Though some see Norris speaking about his weaknesses as a weakness in itself, he says it's simply his process for finding improvements. He knows as well as anyone that his results must improve to win the title, and he remains convinced that he can make the necessary step over the rest of the season to do so.
"I'm not satisfied unless I do the job that I think I can do, which is to win," he adds. "And therefore I'll be tougher on myself, I'll be tougher on the team when it's necessary, because I think that's how we improve.
"And we know that as a team, and that's all that matters. Because if we can work on each other, and the team helps me and I help them, then that's all I really care about.
"I don't care what other people's perception is or thoughts are about those moments. I know what's best for me and what's best for the team, and we help one another to get the most out of each other."