Somerset street renamed "Lando Lane" for F1 champion Lando Norris as former teacher reflects

A street in Somerset has been renamed Lando Lane after McLaren's Lando Norris clinched his first Formula 1 drivers' championship title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Norris was born in Bristol and was educated at Millfield School in Street, Somerset. To mark the local hero's milestone, a pedestrianised avenue at Clarks Village in the same village as his school has been renamed Lando Lane, with the new signage already installed.

The avenue sits between Apple Court and Orchard Square off Farm Road.

Chris Davis, centre director of Clarks Village, said: "Lando is a local hero and we are all absolutely delighted that he’s been crowned world champion.

"He spent his formative years here in Somerset and it was during this period in his life when he took up karting, a path that has ultimately led to him becoming the best F1 driver in the world.

"Renaming our street ‘Lando Lane’ is our way of commemorating this incredible achievement from one of the region’s favourite sons."

As excitement grew in Norris's hometown, one of his former teachers, Mr Bishop, spoke to ITV about the achievement.

"I’m just really proud for him for his achievement. It’s quite an incredible journey, and it happens to very few people,” he said. "He had the talent that was kind of identified early on and nurtured throughout and even just to see how McLaren have handled him over the last few years as well."

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He added, "I still remember him as that little boy that was in the house. I’ve not had the good fortune to meet him since, I hope I do one day.

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"But I would certainly remind him of what he was like when he was younger and just be a bit in awe of him and what he’s achieved. I’d wonder what was next for him and what his ambitions were going forward because I think he would be very keen to maintain himself at the very top of his game for some years to come.

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"I’d probably like to know what motivates him. I’d like to hear about his memories of school and what he thought of his experiences at school."

Remembering Norris's time at school, Mr Bishop continued: "He was a really, really nice young boy, very sociable and extremely polite. He had a good sense of humour, and he just enjoyed really being one of the boys.

"It was good for him just to be part of the school environment as he had a lot of pressure on his young shoulders at that time in terms of trying to manage school work alongside the racing schedule that he had.

"He became go-karting world champion in the first year that he joined us and then moved on to the Formula 4 and Formula 3. That meant a lot of weekends away and a lot of work to catch up. Part of it was trying to help him manage that sort of thing.

"He was involved in the karting and when he was coming into school you knew he was he was talented. He was doing spectacularly well in all these races and winning the world championships for the karting was a really big one.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

"If he came back from a bad race weekend you would kind of know because he was focusing on it, thinking about it and analysing it. I think that was probably one of the strengths that he had as an individual which has probably helped him reach this pinnacle of his career is that ability to analyse and self-reflect and to look for ways of improving.

"He was always looking out for the small details. He was constantly learning from his experiences. He was able to manage his school schedule and his racing schedule, and he had very little down time. That takes an amount of maturity in the way you can approach those things. He seemed to have his feet really firmly on the ground."

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