How F1 world champion Lando Norris’ Cool Performance simulator has shaped his career

Lando Norris won’t have to be concerned about any performance anxiety when he arrives at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.

The reigning champion has had less track time than his rivals after McLaren’s double DNS in China, but thankfully has a secret weapon.

The 26-year-old has spent tens of thousands of hours training on Cool Performance simulators, founded by his older brother Oliver.

The elder Norris raced in motorsport for eight years, from go-karting to Formula racing, before switching lanes to the sim world.

The company’s development lead, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, another ex-racer, ironically competed as a junior against Stoffel Vandoorne, whose McLaren exit opened the door for Lando to enter F1.

Yet his more deliberate assist in the Norris household comes via Sims, which is where Oliver met him while visiting his brother in training.

“I just stopped racing myself,” he revealed on the ‘natural’ formation of Cool Performance.

“I wanted to get back into motorsport in one way or another and saw what Adrian was doing, and we sort of had a good conversation about what other areas of the market could be open, and then we talked about making and producing sims and selling them around the world.”

The development of the company’s Formula Pro racing simulator has since become an integral part of Lando’s motorsport journey.

Eight other drivers have also used and trained on Cool Performance simulators, including Williams drivers, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

The growth of sim racing has proved exponential in recent years, with Max Verstappen also a dominant force in the virtual world.

In 2024, the Dutchman won the virtual Nurburgring 24-hour race hours before his victory in the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola.

Getty

On SIMs, Cool Performance CEO Oliver added: “I think they have been a huge changing factor, especially in the last five years.

“There’s been a massive change from people not knowing almost how much they can gain through a SIM.

“I think now it’s more about everyone utilising a SIM, and everyone knows that they need to utilise a SIM to be quick.

“I think outside the racing world, I think the world of entertainment, which is a big area that we play in, that’s really coming alive, and that’s a space that we’re engaging in massively as well.

“We work with lots of drivers all the time, from Formula 4 right up until Formula 1 and across the GT categories.

“So, we’re constantly looking for feedback on the SIM, the brake, the software feeling, to make sure that we’re constantly putting out the best feeling for a driver. We don’t necessarily know what that is.

supplied

supplied

“Whilst we are a group of ex-drivers, we don’t know what that latest F4 car feels.

“Luckily, we work with some of the best people in each category and pinpointing bits of information that they’re using to help us develop the sim further is a massive thing.

“We’ve been using it right from eight years ago, and that continues to be one of the biggest drivers in our success, I think, is using their feedback to help us improve.”

Another driving factor is, of course, Oliver himself – who shares the work ethic that turned Lando into Britain’s 11th F1 World Champion.

Yet the brothers can both attribute that to their father, Adam, who used to secretly sleep at his Pensions Direct firm and utilise an office shower to get ahead of his colleagues en route to making his multimillionaire fortune.

Understandably, Norris Snr. was one of the two names Oliver named as inspiration for his current leadership role.

Getty

“Two big role models, I think, growing up was my dad. He’s been and still is heavily involved in business and running different businesses and companies, and so I learned a lot and still do from him on a daily basis.

“Also, my manager growing up, Mark Berryman, I spent a lot of time with him travelling around the world.

“His style and way of teaching and mentoring have helped shape me in certain ways, I like to think, some for the good, some not.

“Both Mark and my dad both still work extremely hard, and they do long hours into the night, big shifts, work weekends, and almost that becomes the norm.

“And so doing that has never been, I guess, a route I wouldn’t want to do. It’s just a natural thing to do, and so I think that naturally gives you a good advantage over other people, where, I guess, you might be more standard to work, you’re standard nine to five.

“I think growing up, I just have been used to doing weekend work and so on.”

That mentality has meant it is little surprise that Cool Performance, who design, develops, and builds all its simulators in its Sevenoaks-based workshop, continues to go from strength to strength.

“I’d love to say we’re at the start of our journey, and I wouldn’t want to say it’s a success at the moment,” Oliver Norris told talkSPORT.

“Yes, we work with lots of Formula One drivers and drivers across the category, and we’re opening up into the entertainment market, but the opportunity is still so much bigger out there.

“I don’t know when a success is a success if you’re still going upwards, and our ambition is to do a lot more in the motorsport industry and also in the entertainment world than we are doing today.

“So it’s going well, but there’s a lot more still to go.”