Lando Norris has offered fans a rare peak into his off-season training, taking his YouTube subscribers on a journey through ‘assessment day’, the most demanding session of pre-season. The McLaren driver described the ‘gruesome’ experience as ‘probably the worst day of the year’. Performance coach Jon Malvern joined the Brit at Swansea University to put Norris through his paces.

The day started with “some scans and boring stuff” at 8am. In sports science terms, this was a body composition scan and a test of his metabolic rate. These medical tests were followed by a hand grip strength test at 8:45am. A firm grip is critical for F1 stars as the bumpy surfaces of some street tracks would be enough to rip the steering wheel out of the hands of everyday drivers.

At 9:45am, Norris enjoyed breakfast and some downtime before jumping back into action at 10:45am with lower body force diagnostics. This entailed a series of stretching, range of motion tests and plyometric exercises designed to test the parts of his body that would be stressed during a race situation.

After midday, the McLaren driver hit the track (the running track, that is) for a three-minute all-out test of his running ability. Then, Norris ventured back into the lab for a neck strength assessment.

Neck strength is another critical component of F1 driver training. Given the extreme G-forces drivers face in the cockpit, a weak neck is incompatible with a half-comfortable ride. This is something that Nyck de Vries and Oliver Bearman both experienced when making their debuts as stand-ins on short notice.

At 5pm, Norris faced the dreaded VO2 Max Test. This infamous challenge forces athletes to push all out until their muscles fail to clear the lactate, and they cannot continue. It is the most common test of lung capacity in endurance athletes.

After some rest, the McLaren driver faced a heat stress test, monitoring his response to exertion in hot and humid conditions. This kind of training is often used to prepare F1 stars for the brutal conditions of the Singapore Grand Prix.

This intense training could be the difference between glory and second place in 2025. Norris has a golden opportunity to become a world champion after McLaren enjoyed a promising pre-season test that has earned them the tag of favourites heading into the campaign. However, the 25-year-old faces stiff competition from his team-mate, and Max Verstappen.