Lando Norris’ childhood go-karting coach has shared the “lovely” thank-you gift the Formula 1 star left for him.
Rob Dodds was invited to be a guest at a party Norris threw to thank everyone who helped him become world champion in December.
And when Dodds returned to his hotel room after the event, he found a signed crash helmet from one of the star’s races.
“On the top it said ‘To Rob, where my journey to F1 all started! Thank you. World Champions, Lando Norris’,” the coach, who now lives in Dorset, told BBC Radio Somerset.
Dodds said the party, which the 26-year-old racer held at a hotel in Surrey, was “surreal”.
He said he sat on the same table as Norris and his family, surrounded by other people who supported the racer such as McLaren Racing’s chief executive officer Zak Brown.
Norris, who was born in Bristol but grew up in Somerset, won his first F1 championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He took the title by two points from rival Max Verstappen and became the 11th British F1 world champion.
“He [Norris] made a speech through the course of the evening and he had done little videos,” Dodds said.
“One started with myself and him chatting about what we’d get up to. It was very emotional,” he added.
And there was another surprise yet to come.
“While we were at the party they had gone to the room and he’d actually put one of his old crash helmets in there in a Perspex frame,” Dodds said.
“That was a lovely thing to have,” he added.
