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Lando Norris stands just three podiums away from matching Lewis Hamilton's McLaren tally of 49, and with four Grands Prix remaining before the summer break, the 2025 world champion could soon become only the second driver to surpass Hamilton's mark at Woking. His third-place finish in Barcelona, behind race winner Hamilton and George Russell, lifted Norris to 46 McLaren podiums and reignited a streak that had stalled through several frustrating race weekends.
Hamilton accumulated his 49 McLaren podiums across two stints with the team, the first spanning 2007 to 2012 before his move to Mercedes. Norris, who joined McLaren's race seat in 2019, has built his total in six seasons. The gap is narrow enough that even a modest run of form could see him eclipse Hamilton within a month.
What makes the milestone particularly significant is not just the comparison to a seven-time champion, but the trajectory it sets. If Norris passes Hamilton, he will sit fourth on McLaren's all-time podium list, behind only Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, and either Mika Häkkinen or David Coulthard, depending on how the next phase of the season unfolds.
Prost's record within range if form holds
Prost remains McLaren's podium king with 63, 30 of which were victories during his dominant years with the team in the mid-to-late 1980s. Norris would need 18 more podiums to match that figure. Given McLaren's competitiveness this season, and the number of races still to come, it is no longer a fantasy. Consistency, rather than outright speed, will dictate whether he can challenge Prost's mark by season's end.
Senna claimed 53 podiums for McLaren, Häkkinen 52, and Coulthard 51. All are within striking distance if Norris maintains podium contention through the second half of the calendar. The Barcelona result suggested he has steadied after a mid-season dip, though whether that form holds will depend as much on McLaren's development direction as his own racecraft.
Title defence slipping away
Norris won the 2024 drivers' championship, but his defence has faltered. He sits fifth in the standings with 73 points, 83 behind leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes driver has been the season's revelation, and unless McLaren finds significant performance, Norris's focus will shift from championship contention to legacy markers like the podium record.
Four races remain before the August shutdown. If Norris finishes on the podium in all of them, he will not only pass Hamilton but also leapfrog Coulthard and Häkkinen, leaving only Senna and Prost ahead. Whether McLaren can deliver the car to make that possible is the question that will define his summer
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