0
McLaren recognises that Lando Norris will make some rookie mistakes in 2019, according to team boss Zak Bown. The 19-year-old will take part in his F1 debut later this year at the Australian Grand Prix for the Woking squad, who granted him the 2019 seat in place of Stoffel Vandoorne.
After winning the 2017 European Formula 3 championship, Norris graduated to Formula 2 in 2018. However, he lost out on the title by a large margin, despite finishing the year in second place.
But McLaren viewed his year successful enough to promote its junior driver into the full-time seat alongside Carlos Sainz, who joins from Renault. While McLaren will leave exceptions out for Norris' mistakes, Brown still expects him to race hard against Sainz.
"We are going to give Lando time. In our expectations, I think it’s a high-pressure environment and the first thing that everyone does in Formula 1 is compare to their teammate. We know Carlos is an extremely quick, experienced race car driver.
"Your first measure is ultimately against your teammate so we expect them to race each other hard, race each other cleanly and for sure they need to get the measure of each other from time to time. That will be the first test and then we want to make sure we see them develop.
"We recognise he’s going to make some rookie mistakes, we recognise he’s going to be at race tracks he’s never been to before and we’re in a rebuilding process. It’s one thing to jump into a team that’s rebuilding versus maybe jumping into a championship calibre car so we know he’s got a difficult task ahead and we’re going to be patient, work with him, as I think we did with Stoffel.
"Stoffel raced two years with us so I think McLaren has a pretty good history of sticking with their drivers. Obviously some have done one-year terms but that’s not our expectations on an outcome with Lando."
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
United Arab Emirates
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
24 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Stoffel Vandoorne
282,877 comments on McLaren 156 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about McLaren
Replies (0)
Login to reply