Lando Norris co-founds LN4 Fusion junior racing team and launches LN4 Legacy driver development programme

Lando Norris has co-founded a new junior, single-seater racing team. Named LN4 Fusion it will compete in multiple championships including the feeder series for Formula One, F3 and F2, as the current F1 world champion commits to helping young drivers make it to the top level in motorsport.

Norris’s involvement, including a personal financial undertaking alongside an investment group, represents the first time an F1 world champion has directly backed a team in the modern junior single-seater era. As part of the project he has also established the LN4 Legacy programme, a driver development initiative designed to identify and support talent coming through the ranks from karting upwards and then provide assistance financially as well as in coaching, performance and career support.

The McLaren driver launched the project at an event in Monza, which will host the Italian Grand Prix this weekend. It constitutes a serious and comprehensive effort to address some of the difficulties facing junior drivers coming through the ranks, which Norris has previously identified as a fundamental problem for the sport.

“I know that getting to Formula One takes so much more than just talent. You need the right people around you, the right support and the right opportunities at the right time,” he said.

“That’s what these two projects are all about. LN4 Fusion is about building a race team that can compete with the best in junior motorsport, with great people and a great environment for drivers to develop. The LN4 Legacy programme is about helping talented young drivers get opportunities they might not otherwise have.

“They naturally fit together. I want to help create opportunities for the next generation both on and off the track and hopefully make a real difference to young drivers coming through the sport.”

The intent for the LN4 Fusion team will be to compete across a range of championships as of next year with already confirmed programmes in F3 for 2027, as well as the Italian F4 Championship and the FIA Formula Regional European Championship. As part of the process the team has acquired key assets from the German team AIX Racing, which has an F3 entry until the end of the 2027 season and has applied for participation in the F2 Championship.

Norris will play an active role in the organisation and his role was welcomed by the F1 chief executive, Stefano Domenicali. “Seeing Lando Norris involved in this new project is an incredible statement on how much the pyramid of Formula 3 and Formula 2 is crucial to the future of Formula One,” he said. “Through Lando’s investment and experience we can build a future, with new drivers, engineers, mechanics, and a tradition that will be followed by motorsport lovers.”

The seriousness of Norris’s ambition was emphasised with the appointment of René Rosin as team principal. Rosin was formerly the principal and managing director of the Prema team, which has enjoyed more than 40 years of competition in the junior series. They have won multiple titles and are one of the go-to teams for developing young talent. Prema brought on many drivers who went on to F1 including, among others on the current grid, the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as well as Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. The team also nurtured Jacques Villeneuve who went on to take the F1 title.

Part of the LN4 Fusion team will be formed from the experience and personnel at the Fusion Motorsport team, which has enjoyed huge success for 25 years in UK karting, with multiple national and more recently international titles. The head of Fusion Motorsport karting, Dan Hazlewood, will be team principal of the LN4 Fusion UK operation, including overseeing the planned entry into the British F4 championship and in bringing talent through from karting.

With 2027 set for the opening of racing for the team, the organisation is developing a European headquarters in Veneto, northern Italy with a British base in Cambridgeshire already developing the F4 programme.

Rosin emphasised the importance of having Norris as a key part of the new venture and its expectations of success.

“Having Lando on board adds a further dimension to this project,” he said. “He has come through the junior single-seater ranks and understands its demands. His involvement will make a real difference to the team. We want to develop a pathway through junior single-seaters and create an environment in which drivers, engineers and sporting personnel can perform at the highest level.”

The chief executive, Dan Richards, echoed the optimism, believing they had all the requisite elements for success in place. “What we have created is far more than simply the acquisition of a racing team,” he said.

“We have assembled a rare combination and secured the right sporting leadership in the industry: an established operation, a Formula One world champion, the most successful team principal in junior single-seater racing over the past two decades, world-class motorsport expertise, significant investment and a shared ambition to build a team capable of competing at the highest levels of the sport.”