McLaren’s Lando Norris has announced he is setting up his own Esports team, alongside Veloce, to be called Quadrant.
When the 2020 Formula 1 season was delayed due to the global pandemic, the world of virtual racing received far greater attention with Norris seen as one of the leading figures in that field.
Of course, the Briton was an avid fan of Esports before the Formula 1 Virtual Series and remains a regular competitor in various competitions, and now he will have a team of his own.
Norris plans to link up with some of the most popular streamers in the world as part of his Quadrant team, and the long-term goal is to expand to competitions outside of racing.
“Quadrant is something I’ve wanted to do for a long while,” he told BBC Sport.
“The lockdown accelerated things because I was doing a lot more streaming online and getting more into it.
“It definitely made me want to do it a bit quicker.
“We are starting reasonably small but with the dream of expanding and becoming a much bigger team throughout all esports and not just racing.
“While racing will be a focus and be a bigger passion than almost any other esports, it is hopefully going to be expanding into many other different categories of esports and games.”
????? #QUADRANT pic.twitter.com/qsbXUQ3ouw
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) November 6, 2020
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The initial focus of the team will be to help Norris boost his online presence even further with Veloce Esports getting in on the venture.
It was their “Not The GP” series, featuring racing drivers and celebrities, which played a large part in Norris’ popularity surge on social media.
During the first UK lockdown, Norris’ followers on streaming platform Twitch grew from 185,000 to over 600,000.
“The Lando you see in the paddock and the Lando outside the paddock is not too dissimilar,” said Veloce co-founder Jamie MacLaurin.
“This new breed of F1 drivers that Lando and some of the others like George Russell are leading feel very much like people you would get on with.
“The beauty of the fact that Lando streams online means fans see him in his bedroom and they have that close affiliation to him.”
Norris follows in the footsteps of fellow F1 star Romain Grosjean who set up his own Esports team earlier in the year called R8G Sim Racing.
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