Lando Norris and Magui Corceiro: a fight for wins and likes

As the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna 2024 came to an end Sunday evening, all eyes in the motorsport world were on the last laps of the race. After a static 54 laps to the race, the tides changed as Lando Norris, the British driver who claimed his long awaited maiden win at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, began to gain on Max Verstappen. In the last 10 laps of the race, the McLaren driver rapidly closed the gap to the Red Bull driver, the numbers quickly dwindling from +8,000s to only +0.725s. 

With Andrea Stella and Zak Brown leading the once victorious McLaren team back to its glory, the attention has increased on its drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. While the young Australian still finds his footing in the team and chooses to remain the quiet counterpart to his brash teammate, the Brit is often the talk of the paddock. Since the beginning of the season, this has proven to be the truth. With 4 podiums in only 7 races and a maiden win, making the beginning of the 2024 seasons one of his best yet, coupled with an explosive increase in his social media following, Lando Norris has become one of the hottest athletes around. From sponsors to followers to fellow team principals and even Forbes naming him as one of their 30 under 30, it seems as though everyone wants in on the 24 year old’s rising fame. 

The recent exposure from his Miami win being one of the top three most televised races in Formula 1 history with a peak viewership at 3.6 million has no doubt propelled Norris into a new wave of fame. This made many wonder the same question: Who is Lando Norris? While the basic information from his beginnings into the sport to his record breaking rise to Formula 1 is accessible with a simple search of his name, some don’t stop there. With the rising popularity of the sport through Netflix’s Drive to Survive which gives a glimpse past the drivers’ professional life and into their personal lives, many fans want the nitty gritty ins. 

While some drivers choose to publicize their relationships such as Alexander Albon, Oscar Piastri and 3 time world driving champion Max Verstappen, others choose to keep their relationships quiet. As of December 2023, Lando Norris confirmed to be single to the Italian Newspaper Autosprint during his time in Faenza to collect the Lorenzo Bandini trophy. Recently, though, rumors have begun to spark about him and supposed model/actress Margarida Corceiro, nicknamed Magui, former lover of Barcelona’s striker João Félix. Even if the British driver seems to keep things undercover for the moment, the Portuguese model keeps sending most of Norris’ fans into a spiral with different social media posts that allude to something more than a friendship between them. 

Even before all of this, most of the Mclaren driver’s fans were at least to be precautionary when it came to the 21-year-old model. Besides her roles in her acting career, she was also the protagonist of multiple cheating scandals during her relationship with the footballer João Félix. Her most liked picture on Instagram with over 200,000 likes in which she is seen with two very close male friends is still brought up into conversations by the footballer`s fans as one of the most shameless acts the model has done during their on and off relationship of a few years. What seemed to be the last straw for the fans was the moment private pictures were shared on Margarida’s story of who is believed to be João Félix without her permission, followed by a rushed and senseless apology from the model who insisted at the time it was an accident. 

Apart from her scandalous love life, Magui is known to have a problematic past which includes accusations of blackfishing, using derogatory words towards the POC community and liking Islamophobic tweets without apology. She was also recently under fire by fans online when she proudly showed off her newest character’s hairstyle; dreads. Many called her out on the cultural appropriation but the comments fell to no use on deaf ears, much like the tone-deaf role she will soon reveal. In spite of all her controversial actions, she still seems to be a prominent figure in the Portuguese world of influencers, even being recently nominated by Forbes Portugal as one of the most influential people of the country. This leads many to wonder the morality of such a decision when no accountability seems to be pushed upon her. 

Now, months after the end of her relationship with João Félix, Corceiro is brought under the spotlight by her closeness to Lando Norris. Having been spotted for the first time in May 2023 in Monaco, the Brit was quick to deny any rumors about the two, saying sarcastically that nowadays ‘If you are seen next to a girl, you must be dating!’. At that time, the Portuguese was still believed to be in a relationship with João Félix. Putting an end to those rumors, everything calmed down until the beginning of this year. (During the remainder of the year 2023, she was spotted at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but only as a face for the Oakberry brand). Despite Lando having been seen on dating apps such as Raya or being linked to multiple models on Instagram, people started speculating about them after they were seen together on a ski trip in Finland, during February 2024. Some fans were however cautious to believe this because of Margarida’s known, staged, ski trip to Lapland during the winter of 2023 with the purpose of bringing up the same rumor about her and Norris. Fortunately for her, she did not have to pretend this time as indeed, Corceiro spent a couple of days in the company of the driver and his friends. 

This brings us to the last couple of months. What seemed as another regular Monte-Carlo Masters for the sports community turned out to be another episode in the pair’s saga. Right at the beginning of the weekend, people spotted Margarida and Norris in his custom 765 LT Mclaren on the streets of Monaco, either alongside Norris’ family members or alone. What made this weekend a turning point for fans was the appearance of the two on the TV screens during the final match of the tournament. Showing no signs of affection, people rather moved on from the whole ‘couple idea’, something which may or may not have angered the protagonists of the saga. The model returned to Portugal right as the tournament ended, seemingly cutting their outing short after getting her moment of fame. 

It seems as though Norris is not the only one to deny her very existence on social media and online platforms though. Former driver and childhood friend of the 24-year-old, Max Fewtrell, has recently blocked during his streams any allusion to Magui or Lando’s private life. Understandable, since it is not Lando Norris’ stream, but questionable, since the two Brits are known to share snippets of their life during their streams that gained popularity during Covid. Privacy seems to be an element of controversy between the two friends however with it not often being respected by those around them. 

A couple of days later, pictures of Norris and Corceiro were released to the public by the local Spanish press of them at an airport in the city of Vigo, Spain. As most fans pointed out, the location itself seems to be an unusual one for the British driver who has never stepped foot there before. As for the Portuguese model, the only thing that binds her to Spain is her di lei di lei di lei new international project which has been strongly promoted by her and her agency, Centralmodels during these last couple of weeks. What was said to be a romantic weekend getaway for the couple in Belgium turned out to leave a mark -physically- on Lando Norris, as not even 24 hours later the British driver was seen celebrating King’s Day in Amsterdam alongside his good friend, DJ and music producer Martin Garrix. The absence of Margarida pushed fans to believe the airport photos were supposedly staged and the model never embarked on the plane, a theory that is supported by the odd timing of the photos and the article which was rapidly published before the plane’s wheels even touched its destination’s tarmac.

However, what bothered fans the most about these pictures is the plane they used. Why the Formula 1 driver was flying with another jet charter company when he’s already sponsored by the FAI Aviation Group is a mystery to the curious spectators of this series of unfortunate events. Some claims event went as far as saying that they were never even in Vigo to pick them up there. It bothered fans so much that some decided to even look into the company. The results? Atlantic Air Solutions is a company that has only been around for a little more than 10 years. It operates a 12 plane fleet, most of them only from Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and A Coruña. The rest are apparently in a mobile base. They’re also a company that prides themselves on 24h service, being at anyone’s availability. A fan of both aviation and cars pointed out that the aircraft in the allegedly staged pictures is a Cessna Citation CJ2+ (C525A). A quick search told them it was from an old fleet that came out in the 2000/2010s and it hasn’t been in production since 2016 according to their specs. While the company must be a great solution for some passengers who like their privacy in the air, some argued that Atlantic Air Solutions was the perfect company to be called to organize this stunt. 

It seems as though the staged show was not enough for the young woman though, as she kept hinting to her fans during her free weekend from Europe while Norris was making history in America. The McLaren’s maiden win which came after 110 races and 15 podiums over the span of 5 years in Formula 1, which should have been celebrated and praised was unfortunately overshadowed by many external factors. Being the paddock’s hot topic at the tip of everyone’s tongue unfortunately also meant huge scrutiny for Lando Norris after his thoughtless comment about former President of The United States of America, Donald Trump Jr, who was present in the McLaren garage during the race. Dropping all formalities and addressing the former president as a friend, Norris expressed his point of view on ‘Donald’, saying “He is a person to respect in many ways, and I guess it was an honor for him to come up to me and take a moment out of his life to acknowledge what I’ve done. It was a great moment.” While one might agree, the recognition of a president is honorable, another might agree that such an esteemed honor should be trumped when the president in question is the first to have been impeached – twice, in his country’s history.

Despite the controversial nature of Norris’ words, the situation was long forgotten with a simple story from the model, who announced her arrival in London, keeping fans on their toes and patiently waiting for the driver to return to his homeland. Although, it seemed as though Norris’ win shortened his time with Magui, who only got to spend a couple of hours with him. While the Portuguese actress waited in London, the driver was busy playing golf in Augusta with his boss, Zak Brown, who quickly shut down all the speculations from false articles claiming that the couple were together from Monday to Thursday until Lando was needed back at the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, England. The articles were also quickly debunked by the driver himself who claimed not to be in the United Kingdom until Wednesday, having not slept from Sunday to Tuesday morning. Once he did however arrive in London though and was once again with his friends to golf, Lando’s location was leaked once more by a desperate Margarida who posted a story from the resort of the golf course in hopes of gaining another link to the newest addition on Formula 1’s list of winners. 

The opportunity to show off once again was not missed during the weekend though, when Lando Norris and Magui Corceiro made their appearance at the 14th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique 2024. Keeping a constant distance and a friend between them, this didn’t stop the photographers from capturing the driver’s ‘loving’ gaze towards the model. This however didn’t stop the fans at the event either, as some of them captured behind-the-scenes videos of the orchestration of the photos, led by the Brit himself. Furthermore, the cameras spotted Norris in a friendly conversation with former Formula 2 driver, Arthur Leclerc, who seemed shocked to get a ‘No’ when he asked the McLaren driver if he was there with a girlfriend. What we know for sure is that Monaco is the favorite place for the pairing to be spotted, either by professionals to capture loving moments, or by bystanders who confuse them as nothing more than two friends who seem uncomfortable around each other. How awkward, considering Margarida herself is a supposed actress to star in new international projects currently being filmed in Spain. 

This brings us to the present. After a great race from the British driver in Imola, his brilliant second place’s glory battles with Magui’s hints for ‘the most talked about’ subject of the day. Growing restless from not being able to be there with him, the model engages in online content about the driver and encourages new fans to take a look at freshly posted photos of her di lei on her profile of her from her modeling career of her of her, right after Norris finishes a race. Losing on average 100 followers per day when she is not linked to the driver, a simple photo of her with the pilot’s sister-in-law is enough to feed off her engagement for at least a couple of days, without any promotion of products or brands, things an influencer should be known for. However this supposedly doesn’t come as a surprise to those who know Margarida’s posting habits and her true rise to fame, which didn’t come from her oversold acting career but rather her association to famous athletes. From João Félix, to her odd obsession and infatuation with Pedro Porro and now Lando Norris, some believe Lando is simply another aloof man to fall victim to her obsessive antics as she grasps for any links to fame handed to her. 

One can’t help but feel bad for Norris and his team though, with all of their recent achievements being overshadowed in dozens of news outlets by Margarida Corceiro and her own team. Between leading newspapers releasing speculative articles about the unofficial pairing to Correio da Manhã, a notable Portuguese tabloid and the most read newspaper in Portugal, pushing the couple’s narrative. From Eunice Maya who dismissed McLaren’s upgrades and major win to claim Margarida Corceiro herself as Lando’s good luck charm to winning to Adriano Silva Martin who claims the evolution of Magui and Lando’s relationship without any sure proof or statement from either member in the supposed couple. It seems as though most of these claims are less factual, and more assumptions.

Either way, this doesn’t seem to be a good look for the young McLaren driver, with many fans now doubting his own values, morals and views on sensitive topics because of his association to Magui. 

As more hints are expected these next few days, we can only hope that the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix will shed light on the situation between Lando Norris and Magui Corceiro that’s been completely ignored by the male side of the story and totally exploited by the feminine one.