The £100m Somerset public schoolboy with no GCSEs (but a string of glamorous admirers) who's Britain's new Formula One hero: BARBARA DAVIES traces the incredible rise of Lando Norris

Lando Norris was just five when his parents sold the red plastic quad bike he adored. 'They didn't tell me,' he later recounted. 'I just came back from school one day and it was gone. There were a lot of tears . . . I really loved that bike.'

He had become an early fan of MotoGP motorcycle racing and his parents were alarmed by the daredevil way he took corners on two wheels.

But if they thought that taking away his quad bike would put an end to his passion for racing, they couldn't have been more wrong, as they no doubt reflected on Sunday when their son took the chequered flag in his first ever Formula One victory.

Whooping with delight, Norris roared across the finish line at the Miami grand prix finally silencing doubters who once questioned his talent.

'Lando No-wins' is just one of the jibes the Bristol-born 24-year-old has endured in the years — and the 109 race starts — which followed his debut as Britain's youngest ever F1 driver, in Australia, in 2019 when he was just 19.

'I never lost faith. I never didn't believe in what I could go out and do,' he said, moments after securing his hard-won maiden F1 victory for McLaren at the end of his 110th race.

He added: 'For me to finally prove those people wrong and prove to people that didn't think I could go out and do it, it's put an even bigger smile on my face today.'

As the son of one of Britain's wealthiest men, who bankrolled his son's early career, it's fair to say that privately-educated Norris felt he had more to prove than most. But if his ascent to grand prix stardom does not share the rags-to-riches arc of fellow British racing driving legend Sir Lewis Hamilton, then it is no less remarkable.

As his proud father Adam said on Sunday, speaking to Sky Sports from his home in Somerset just minutes after his son's historic win: 'It's been a long time coming. Everyone's saying it. It's beautiful. I'm so happy for him. It's been a long journey. The cider's flowing in Somerset.'

Still not even halfway through his 20s — and without a single GCSE to his name — Norris has a four-year contract with McLaren estimated to be worth £100 million, as well as a £20 million Surrey mansion, not to mention a series of eye-popping luxury brand deals which have seen his handsome boy band-star face plastered on billboards and across the pages of glossy magazines.

If that wasn't enough to be getting on with, off the track he has already launched his own gaming and lifestyle brand, Quadrant, which is said to combine his love for 'gaming, racing, content and apparel'.

Then there's the string of stunning models drawn to his side like moths to a brightly-burning flame. Names linked to Norris, who thanks to his good looks also has the highest rating among female F1 fans, include Portuguese social media star Luisinha Oliveira and Portuguese model and former Chelsea WAG Margarida Corceiro. All in all, then, a British sporting fairy tale.

But while millions tuned in to watch Norris's triumphant win on Sunday, including his father, whose £200 million fortune saw him take 610th position on 2022's Sunday Times Rich List, the one person who may well not have been watching is Lando's mother Cisca who, he says, 'hates' watching him race because of the risks involved.

Ironically, it was his father who was in the racing seat when his parents met in his mother's native Belgium 30 years ago.

Before entering the financial services industry which would see him become one of Britain's richest men, Leicester University engineering graduate Adam spent a year in Europe pursuing a career as a tour cyclist.

He hoped to become a serious competitor in the Tour de France but, while he never made it as a professional, he did find a wife.

They married in 1995 at a time when Adam was pursuing a career as a financial adviser, working in small brokerages in Bath and Bristol.

He was just 26 when his vision of pensions being sold by phone, post or online received the backing of financial services giants Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown. His brainchild, Pensions Direct, was absorbed into the Hargreaves Lansdown group which is now valued at more than £4 billion and brought the family riches beyond their wildest dreams. He left the firm in 2008.

Lando, who was born in Bristol in 1999, was the second of the couple's four children. His older brother Oliver is 27 and he has two younger sisters, Flo, 22 and 18-year-old Cisca.

Like his siblings, he was educated at £45,000-a-year Millfield School in Somerset, not far from the Norris family's rural home near Glastonbury, although by the time his GCSEs came round, he was too tied up with motorsport commitments to sit his exams.

While his family are passionate about horses and he and his siblings are talented riders, Lando stood out as a petrolhead at an early age.

Soon after his parents went through with the sale of his red plastic quadbike that broke his heart, he persuaded them to buy him a 50cc motorbike which he rode around the garden instead. A trip to the Clay Pigeon Raceway near Dorchester inspired a love of karting which saw the then six-year-old go to bed each night still wearing his first ever race suit.

By the time he was 13 he was enjoying competitive wins and, after rising through the ranks of Formula 4 and Formula 3, McLaren took him on as a junior and simulator driver in 2017 when he was just 16. Further wins saw him sign a deal in 2018 which made him Britain's youngest ever F1 driver in 2019. Speaking to Sky Sports on Sunday, Adam Norris said that he estimated he had watched his son racing nearly 1,000 times over the past 16 years.

'It's been a long time but we got there,' he said. 'People don't realise there's a lot of bad days as well as good days. Five years in you think, right, it's too much. Too many weekends away from home, away from your family. It makes it all worth it.'

His son has never hidden the fact that Adam initially bankrolled his motor racing career, admitting last summer in an interview with The Times that it was '100 per cent very, very clear for anyone' to see that his father had financed his entry into F1.

But he insisted: 'You have to have talent to make it. You'll never get to Formula One now if you're a bad driver.'

His burgeoning wealth saw him move to Monaco in 2022. Acknowledging the financial reasons for the move, he told The Times that year: 'There are a few reasons why. But we all know what the main one is. Yeah, the weather's nice, but that's not the main reason.'

If his rise to the top has been gilded, then he has learnt valuable lessons on the way — not least that he is not invulnerable.

That moment came not behind the wheel of his 200mph racing car but outside Wembley Stadium where, three years ago, he was violently mugged for his watch.

'I didn't realise how quickly things could go scary,' he said last summer as he recalled the terrifying moment the £144,000 Richard Mille timepiece — one of only five in existence — was ripped from his wrist by one robber while another pinned him down in a headlock.

It was a reminder not to take anything for granted because, as he put it, 'things can go up and down, completely out of your control'.

That level-headedness saw the British racing driver beat reigning world champion Max Verstappen into second place in Miami on Sunday. Soon after that, a fawning Donald Trump rocked up with his security detail, telling Norris he was a 'lucky charm'.

Above all, Lando already has a reputation as F1's 'nice guy', someone who, despite becoming jaw-droppingly wealthy at such a young age, still hangs around to help clear up with his team after races and who is seen by mechanics as a friend as a well as a driver.

As he took the chequered flag on Sunday, his first thoughts were not of himself but of all those who had guided him to that historic moment.

'We did it!' he shouted, seconds after crossing the finishing line.