The disciplined diet fueling Lando Norris' F1 championship bid

McLaren star Lando Norris has offered an insight into the strict and disciplined diet fueling his bid for the 2025 drivers' championship.

After a dominant victory at the Mexico Grand Prix last time out, Norris leads the drivers' standings for the first time since April, with Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen trailing by one and 36 points, respectively.

Of course, turning up at the track in Mexico - or indeed any other race weekend - is only half the job, with preparation key in an era where drivers are very much athletes in their own right.

With that in mind, and an increasingly grueling F1 schedule to contend with, Norris, like many other professional athletes around the world, has a chef on hand to help him get the perfect balance of nutrients into his body and maximize his performance.

The McLaren star even revealed that he does frequent blood tests to figure out what sort of things he needs his chef to cook to balance things out. For example, as he revealed to Sidney Schutte, head chef at two Michelin star restaurant Spectrum, he's often low in Omega 3 thanks to his decision not to eat fish.

Lando Norris' strict F1 diet

"I always do blood tests, to see what I'm lacking, because I don’t eat fish, so Omega 3 I'm normally very low. Then he’ll cook foods that are special for me, what I'm deficient in. Iron. Magnesium. Omega-3. Whatever it may be.”

The Brit also revealed that he usually has a burger post-race, with Schutte expressing his surprise that his performance team don't have a problem with that practice – and Norris replying: “No, that’s not cheating. That’s legal! My trainer gives me the burger, so if he gives it to me it’s fine.”

Norris' burger comment speaks to something still often misunderstood about athletes' diets – the simple fact that exercise burns calories and fat reserves, and that those need to be replenished.

While the 1,500 calories burned over the course of some F1 races is nothing compared to the 8,000 calories a cyclist can go through over the course of a tough one-day race (or tour stage), that still needs to be put back in the body, and you can't achieve that with a big bowl of leafy greens.

All of that being said, we'd love to hear what combination of factors goes into Norris' pre-race fuel being 'popcorn, pretzels, and pineapple'. That's quite the flavor profile.

READ MORE: F1 2025 Standings: The gap between Norris, Piastri and Verstappen after Mexico Grand Prix

Related