Lando Norris reveals why McLaren's stunning Mexico GP livery is 'more than just a design'

F1’s 2025 World Drivers’ Champion will run a unique fan-inspired livery featuring a collection of fans’ dreams on his car at this weekend’s Mexico City GP.

Lando Norris and McLaren are no strangers to a one-off livery, but this weekend in Mexico promises to be something very special.

Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri will be running an eye-catching livery that brings together a selection of fans’ original dreams in one collective design as part of McLaren’s Principal Partner Velo’s Live Your Fandom campaign.

Norris revels in new fan-inspired livery: ‘To see their dreams on track, that’s pretty awesome’

This is hardly the first time Norris and McLaren have found a way to engage with their ever-growing fanbase, but Velo’s Live Your Fandom campaign has taken things to a new level.

Papaya followers were encouraged to share their most unique fan wishes ‘fan dreams’ earlier in the year, with some of the season’s most original submissions brought to life. The Mexico City livery is the latest chapter, bringing a selection of those dreams together through bespoke sticker artwork across the car.

Norris says he enjoyed seeing the creative inspiration on show in the one-off Mexico design.

“[The livery ideas] are actually good to see, and reminders of what some of mine used to be when I was younger,” he told SPORTbible.

“I think a fan-based livery is just more special. It's not like a top designer that's put everything together to try and make it look cool.

“It's not just a picture. It's not just a design. It's an actual thing that we're racing, and for some of them, to see the livery, to see their name or their dream on track, that’s pretty awesome.

“It's done by the people who make everything happen, who allow us to go and do racing and allow the sport to happen in the first place. You're able to give back to them, really feel more than ever like they're part of our journey and our story here at McLaren.”

It’s not just the eye-catching livery that has brought fans’ dreams to life.

In a series of charming and funny videos shared on Velo’s Instagram channel, fans behind some of the campaign’s most original submissions joined Norris and Piastri for experiences including pottery and matcha-making.

“The pottery was just a fun one because it was like a creativity thing, which I love,” says Norris. “It was just a good laugh. It was like a different challenge for me.

“That's just a really cool one because it's something very different to what I'm used to doing, and actually was a lot of fun.”

Norris is someone who’s led the way in getting fans closer to the action in recent years.

Despite only having run for two years, his self-titled ‘Lando Stand’ is already one of the British Grand Prix’s most recognisable landmarks.

16,000 supporters packed out his self-titled Silverstone’s section this year, showing the massive pull Norris has on the F1 fanbase.

However, the McLaren man has now revealed the main idea for the luminous Lando Stand didn’t come from grand prix racing at all.

“You just see the British flags and the names with it: Jenson and Lewis and things like that, but you never really saw a dedicated area to someone,” he said.

“For me, growing up, that was in MotoGP, and that was Valentino Rossi.

“I would say more of the inspiration and the dream came from him. In terms of what it looks like, when I was watching Valentino in front of his fans, his fan base was crazy.

“When you really got to see that support, that gave me that feeling and the thought of: ‘I wonder what it's like to be there in front of all of those people.’ But the Lando Stand was in some ways bigger than anything that I've seen, and that I could imagine.”

For Norris, this fan support is displayed like nowhere else than at the Lando Stand.

“When I do the drivers' parade and I stop in front of them, the chants and the shouting is pretty nuts,” he laughs.

“The feeling it gives you inside is just crazy because you're like: ‘What the hell is going on?!’

“I get out [on track], it's just me and the sea of fluorescent yellow.”

The British star believes the passionate support for McLaren and himself marks the fanbase out as different from the rest.

“I think one of the best parts of it are the people who have stuck with us over the past few years,” he says.

“I was a fan of McLaren when they were winning in ‘07, ‘08, and I loved them then. I've loved them ever since, even when they weren't doing so well.

“They had a very tough few years before I joined, but what was amazing was how much support we had even through those years, which is hard because it's not easy to keep supporting.

“On that journey with myself and Zak, who joined McLaren at a similar time [2019], we had these up and down years - it would fluctuate quite a lot.

“F1 is a sport where nothing would happen without the fans. They're the ones who really allow everything to happen.”

2026 has been a year of ups and downs for McLaren, but the wins for Norris in Zandvoort and Budapest demonstrated the upward journey of long-term growth the team is on.

“The thing we knew before - and this is living it - is just how hard it is to be at the top all the time,” he says.

“It’s not like football where you just go into a new season and it's kind of ‘let's go again’.

“It's a new car. It's a new engine. There's things that make it much harder to achieve success continuously, and I think in a way it's a good realisation of how much it takes to consistently be the best in the world.

“The team is more than up for it and capable of it. Sometimes you need a little bit of time. I'm excited to finish this season off well and go into next year more prepared.”

The 2025 World Drivers' Champion world champion has seen his star rise to a point where he’s now transcended the sport, presenting gongs at the BRIT Awards and being a familiar face on advertising billboards around the world

However, ‘2025 champ says it was winning that title which took things to another level.

“It was unbelievable, the same as trying to imagine what it's like to have a big grandstand!” he relates. “You don't know what to expect. You don't know what to think.

“I was able to have that realisation of what it actually is, now this is a world championship, and think of seeing Lewis win it and Fernando win it when I was younger, and to really live what I once saw when I was a kid.

“It always seems so distant and so far away and almost unachievable until it happens and it hits.

“Obviously, one I will remember forever, and the emotions, the feelings, the last lap, the celebrations, like every single part of it. I wish I could just put it into a box and be able to relive it at any point, because they're beautiful memories.”