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Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris jumped behind the wheel of a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car in the lead-up to this week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver took part in a special event organised by sponsor Monster Energy, where he sampled a host of rally car and drifting machinery on a frozen lake in Sweden. The event included two fellow Monster-backed drivers, 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg and his son, 2026 Monte Carlo Rally winner Oliver Solberg. The latter showed Norris the ropes of the GR Yaris Rally2 car – the likes of which he guided to the WRC2 title last year.
Norris has been a long-time admirer of rallying, telling Motorsport in 2022 that he would like to try this discipline in the future, which led to Solberg inviting the Briton to come and try one of his rally cars.
In 2024, Oliver Solberg, who is a member athlete of the Quadrant company founded by Norris, headed to Silverstone to join the McLaren driver for laps of the famous grand prix circuit behind the wheel of a McLaren supercar.
In this latest driver swap stunt in Sweden, Norris initially climbed in the GR Yaris Rally2 car alongside Oliver, before the pair switched seats.
“I’m learning. It is a different style of driving. I have done a bit of ice driving but not in a rally car, only in a road car, so it is different. I’m learning a lot, Oliver is helping me understand it. It is cool,” said Norris of the rally car experience in a Monster Energy video from the event.
“We went off a few times but that happens, you need to try the limits, so fair play, good job,” added Oliver Solberg.
Petter Solberg, who followed Norris driving a Rally2-spec Volkswagen Polo, was equally impressed by the F1 world champion’s performance.
“It has been an incredible event. I’ve really enjoyed it but I’m so happy to see [Lando] Norris enjoy it so much,” said Petter Solberg.
“I was very impressed actually and at the end now he [Lando] is pushing properly. I was driving behind him and I didn’t catch him, so he was actually really good.”
Norris isn’t the only F1 driver to have recently sampled rally machinery. Max Verstappen jumped behind the wheel of an ex-Sebastien Ogier M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC car in a social media video for Red Bull, while Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll tested a Citroen C3 Rally2 car on a gravel stage in Portugal last year.
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