In over 70 years of Formula One, there haven't been many drivers like Lando Norris. He's quick, but that's nothing new at the top level of motor racing. What sets him apart is how open he has been about his struggles away from racing.
It's easy to assume Norris has everything you could want from life. He's 21, at the start of his third season with iconic team McLaren, and is fourth in the championship having been one of the standout drivers of the opening four races.
Norris told ESPN in an interview for Mental Health Awareness Week he felt people appreciated the fact he was just being himself.
"I was different to a lot of Formula One drivers, being open about everything really, being a bit more fun, a bit more jokey, probably more just like a normal person rather than some robot walking around the paddock," he said.
"I guess people already like that and it cheered a lot of people up, me having fun and seeing someone joyful and making people laugh.
...Every now and then I scroll through messages I get on Instagram just from random people, different people around the world who have messaged me. A lot of them are about them suffering with mental health, especially in the last year and a bit with COVID-19 -- that's something people have struggled with a lot more."
The more Norris openly spoke about mental health, the more it resonated with people.
"I was getting messages from people saying how I'd impacted them and how me being me ... how I'd changed their lives or, I guess as deep as saying, they were thinking about suicide and stuff like that, saying how I'd had an impact on changing that," he said. "Saying they're enjoying their lives a lot more (...)"
Source: https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/31411999/how-mclaren-lando-norris-impacted-lives-opening-mental-health