Pictures: Lando Norris seen spending time with his racing idol Valentino Rossi

Lando Norris was present at the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix paddock and met his idol Valentino Rossi there. The pair were seen strolling around the motorhomes together as the McLaren driver had the first-class seat of watching the weekend unfold with the MotoGP legend himself.

Norris was first spotted with reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Martin in the San Marino GP paddock. The Aprilia driver and he were zooming on a scooter as the team shared their interaction on social media.

Subsequently, Norris continued his exploration of the paddock as he became the guest of honor at Ducati's garage and even learned about the intricacies of a MotoGP bike with Valentino Rossi's team. Moreover, he even got to meet the man himself during his time at the Misano circuit, as the pair were soon captured together:

Lando Norris began karting at a young age, but the Briton was also an avid fan of Valentino Rossi, who was able to generate his interest in motorbikes.

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Lando Norris once opened up about the impact of Valentino Rossi on his racing career

McLaren's Lando Norris walks into the paddock at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza during the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Italy race weekend - Source: Getty

Lando Norris tried out multiple sports before taking on open-wheel racing, and one of the sports was motorbike racing. Moreover, this love for racing in general was sparked by Valentino Rossi's wonders in the MotoGP realm when he was a kid.

Talking about how the MotoGP champion got him into racing and the impact he had, the 25-year-old told F1's official website in 2023:

"It’s weird, I still remember myself being so young, watching Valentino on TV, and there he was competing." "Meeting Valentino was really cool; I was mainly there just to meet him, and it was an honour. He was the guy I looked up to and who got me into racing in the first place: who knows, maybe if I didn’t follow Valentino, and then get into motorbikes, maybe I wouldn’t have got into motorsport, or maybe that interest would have been delayed."

On the other hand, he further revealed how his initial helmet designs were inspired by Rossi's helmet styling:

"When I started competing myself, Valentino inspired my helmet design. I gave it to a helmet designer and I was like ‘I love Rossi!’ and he came up with one that was black chrome and orange. Rossi had ‘the sun and the moon’, mine was like ‘the sun and the sun’ and it has been adapted and evolved a bit over the years."

While Norris is present in the MotoGP paddock, he would return to the F1 realm in the upcoming weekend as the 20-car grid would take on the Baku street circuit between September 19-21 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Edited by Geetansh Pasricha