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The 20-year-old has raised his profile
considerably, particularly with a younger audience, through
prolific online racing activities that could reap real rewards
further down the road.
According to analysis by Nielsen Sports, Norris's social media
following has grown faster than any other F1 driver in the past
few weeks.
"He is the tech nerd of modern-day society," quipped Renault
rival Daniel Ricciardo in an Instagram Q+A session with fans
that Norris also popped up on. "Not trying to be mean. He's
everywhere."
Norris now has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, still way
behind Mercedes' six times world champion Lewis Hamilton's 15.1
million or Australian Ricciardo's three million but more than
double that of last year's other rookies Alexander Albon and
George Russell.
Spanish team mate Carlos Sainz, a five season veteran, has 1.2
million while Mercedes's championship runner-up Valtteri Bottas
has 1.4.
Neilsen said Norris had acquired 53,559 new Instagram followers
in just 14 days.
A sign of the times, with Formula One yet to start its season
and a string of races postponed, came when more than 36,000
people watched a livestream of Norris shaving his head at home
on Twitch to fulfil a charity pledge.
"Lando seems to have struck a chord with the esports stuff and I
think the resurgence of McLaren as well has helped," Nielsen
Sport's Nigel Geach told Reuters, referring to the team's fourth
place finish last season.
"There’s a lot of interest and he seems to have done it more
than most of the drivers. I think people will follow on from
that as well.
"I think it could filter down to the physical side, getting more
attendees at the grand prix."
Norris belongs to a generation that has grown up with virtual
racing and has a top-of-the-range simulator in his living room.
With esports exploding to fill the void left by the lack of
track action, he has been a standout across a range of platforms
-- competing in iRacing, Veloce Esports events and official
Formula One virtual grands prix streamed on Twitch.
Norris's Twitch account drew more than 77,000 viewers at its
peak for Formula One's virtual Vietnamese Grand Prix last
weekend, even though he had technical problems and failed to
start.
Much of the appeal comes down to an infectious and impish
personality -- the Briton calling up team mates and rivals on
his mobile for some light-hearted banter before and during a
virtual Bahrain race last month.
"I wanted to call the person who got the most experience from
last year starting on the back row of the grid," he informed
Russell, whose Williams team were last in 2019.
Some social media chatter afterwards gave Norris's Twitch stream
better reviews than the official televised coverage.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
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