Lando Norris had an impeccable 2020 season for McLaren, pushing the team to secure their first top 3 constructors finish in years. And now, he is in the midst of an exciting 2021 F1 season, having already secured 3 podiums before arriving at the halfway point.

Considering this is only his third season in F1, one can acknowledge that this has already been a successful campaign for the Briton. However, behind every one of his successes, there has been a voice that has often guided him to the impressive end results – his race engineer.

So, who is his race engineer, who almost acts as Norris’ 3rd eye in F1?

About McLaren F1 race engineer William Joseph

William Joseph, commonly known as Will Joseph, is indeed the voice behind Norris’ on-track success. The Briton completed his education at the University of Cambridge. William did his Master’s in Aerospace and Aerothermal Engineering.

After gaining his education in 2006, William eventually landed a job in McLaren as a design engineer. He was designing the carbon wishbones, brake ducts, and damper units. After 5 years, in 2011, the Briton then jumped into simulators.

He was working as a simulator test engineer for over 6 months, before moving up another step as a performance engineer. During this period, William worked alongside Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez, and Fernando Alonso.

The Lando Norris – Will Joseph team-up

In 2019, William found himself race engineering a rookie, who had just signed off his F2 season in P2. Since then, there have been some funny conversations as well as intense conversations between the two.

But, let’s look at the intense radio messages first. Who could ever forget the ‘Scenario 7’ moment during the dying laps of the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix! But that’s not it.

During the 2019 Italian Grand Prix, Norris lashed out at his race engineer for talking while overtaking one of the Toro Rossos. “Stop f*cking talking when I’m trying to race,” he said. A similar message arrived from Norris, later in 2020 as well.

Will’s ‘Happy Birthday’ radio message to Norris

The best banter of 2020 is probably the duo’s conversation during the weekend at Istanbul Park in 2020. It was Norris’ birthday, and Will was ready to wish his driver during the FP2 session.

“There’s no one here to sing with me and embarrass myself. So I’m just gonna say happy birthday mate,” he said. Norris then gave a hilarious response by saying, “Cheers Will. Appreciate it. Actually, can you sing it?”

Subsequently, his race engineer replied with an excuse, “We’re doing a pit-stop. So, I can’t. I’m sorry“, to which Norris laughed quite hard. Overall, there are more such priceless moments between the duo to look at. But, will Norris and Will continue to deliver such banters in the future as well?

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