New Zealand's junior series celebrates producing an F1 champion in Lando Norris

Lando Norris’s first major single-seater championship win outside of the UK came in New Zealand, and now that he's the 2025 Formula 1 World Champion, the series that launched him is celebrating a mission accomplished. The Formula Regional Oceania Trophy, formerly the Toyota Racing Series, has long promoted itself as a place for 'Finding New Zealand’s Next World Champion'—and with Norris, it finally has one.

Why it matters:

For a nation with a rich but distant motorsport history, producing a world champion—even one who isn't a native—validates the quality and purpose of its premier junior series. Norris's success provides a powerful case study for the championship's role in the F1 development ladder and fuels the ambition to end New Zealand's own 58-year wait for a homegrown title winner.

The details:

• Norris won the 2016 Toyota Racing Series title at just 16 years old, beating future F1 driver Jehan Daruvala and claiming the prestigious New Zealand Grand Prix.
• That championship was the first of three major titles he won that year, kickstarting a dominant junior career that led to Formula 1.
• Nicolas Caillol, Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand's motorsport manager who worked with Norris in 2016, called the Briton's F1 title "a great honour" and stated, "for us, that is mission accomplished. Well, part one at least."
• The series' ultimate goal remains producing a New Zealand-born Formula 1 world champion, a feat last achieved by Denny Hulme in 1967.

What's next:

The focus now shifts squarely to current F1 driver and fellow series graduate Liam Lawson, who is seen as holding the best chance to become "New Zealand’s next world champion." The series will continue its 2026 season next month, aiming to attract and develop the next wave of talent, with the hope that a future champion—potentially a Kiwi—is already on the grid. Norris's championship has transformed the series' slogan from an aspiration into a proven pathway.