Lando Norris amazed by fan reactions after opening up on mental health issues

That McLaren F1 team driver Lando Norris is one of the best prospects in the sport is well-known. The Brit is now in his third season in Formula 1 and has started 2021 quite well. However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for him. Norris has dealt with anxiety aplenty in his early days in the sport. This in turn led to sleepless nights. That he spoke about these issues quite frankly in the aftermath endeared him to fans even more. Now, Norris has revealed how it felt when fans spoke to him after he revealed his struggles.

“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,” Norris told ESPN.

“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.”

Using the platform

Once Lando Norris realised the effect of his words, he made it a point to speak more on mental health. He added that it wasn’t a fun conversation, but a necessary one.

“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. Saying they’re enjoying their lives a lot more.

“Seeing a lot of those messages and learning about that made me realise I can use my platform a lot more to speak up about it because it’s things I’ve struggled with in the past, and [it’s about] knowing and learning how much of a difference I can have on people around the world.

“That’s when I started speaking out about it a bit more and realising that maybe it’s not always the nicest thing to talk about but it’s something where I can help a lot of other people out.”