Lando Norris has become Britain's 11th Formula 1 World champion, fulfilling what many in motorsport saw as a long-predicted destiny. Born in Bristol to Belgian-British parents and raised in Glastonbury, the 26-year-old began karting at eight and was on pole for first national event. Backed by his multimillionaire father Adam Norris and guided early on by manager Mark Berryman, his junior career consistently marked him as a future F1 contender. When the family lacked contacts as he moved into car racing, they approached Zak Brown, then a leading motorsport marketing executive, who initially thought, "this is not what I do," but relented because, as he put it, "everyone tells me he is the greatest thing since sliced bread." Brown says he realised Norris was the real deal "pretty much right away."