Lando Norris has been one of the revelations of the 2021 Formula 1 season, the 21-year-old Englishman has established himself at the pinnacle of the sport as if he was made to be there and his results have been noted by the likes of Mika Hakkinen and Ross Brawn.
After eight rounds the McLaren driver lies fourth in the drivers’ standings, this season raising his game to another level and with it making highly-rated Daniel Ricciardo look ordinary.
McLaren’s double F1 World Champion, Hakkinen is well impressed with the 21-year-old and said so in his Unibet column reviewing the Styrian Grand Prix.
Hakkinen wrote: “Aside from Red Bull, the big story for me is Lando Norris’s performance for McLaren. Once again he qualified strongly, then benefitting from Valtteri’s grid penalty to start from third on the grid.
“On Sunday he did not try to race the Red Bulls and Mercedes, realising that McLaren’s major competitor in the World Championship for Constructors is Ferrari. Lando’s fifth-place finish was another strong performance.
“Even though Ferrari had quite a strong race, they finished behind the young McLaren driver. It is important to remember that Lando is only 21, but in his third season in F1 he is doing such a fantastic job,” pointed out the 1998 and 199 F1 World Champion.
Norris was expected to meet his match when Ricciardo arrived, the Aussie ten year’s older than his teammate is a proven Grand Prix winner and considered among the best by all in the paddock. Until this season in which he has struggled to live up to the billing.
Hakkinen warned: “The one concern at McLaren is that teammate Daniel Ricciardo is having a more difficult year. Daniel is a fantastic driver, and one of the best overtakers in the business, but something is preventing him from extracting the maximum performance from himself and the car.
“If they can find a solution to that problem, Ferrari has a major fight on its hands to finish third in the teams’ championship,” predicted the Finn.
Also impressed with Norris is F1 motorsport chief Ross Brawn, and said of the humbling of Ricciardo: “We mustn’t forget, he had half the testing that we had this year, and we were still trying to learn the power unit in testing.
“So what we’re seeing out of Daniel is he’s getting quicker every weekend. His work ethic is great, his attitude is great, and he and the team are just working more closely together.
“So I’m extremely confident that he’ll get to his ultimate pace here shortly. I think adapting to a new car in a COVID era, where you have reduced testing, has certainly not made it easy on him.
“He’s got a teammate who I think is as fast as anyone on the grid. So he’s got a great bar to race against,” added Brawn in praise of Norris.
McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl gave the inside line on his young driver’s stellar form this season: “I think with everything we have seen from him it just shows that again he has made a big step forward this year.
“Also, it is simply great to see that after a qualifying lap that maybe doesn’t go to plan or a race start that doesn’t go to plan… he stays calm, he knows his opportunities are coming, he manages his tyres when he has to and then he uses the potential that is there, when the opportunities come up in the race.
“And it’s really great to see how he grew into this the last two and half years and but scoring in each race means the team is doing a great job in terms of reliability, in terms of pit stops, race strategy, and I’m obviously very happy with what I’m seeing there,” added Seidl.
As long as Ricciardo – a driver many have ranked among the top five or six of the current era – is his measure and Norris keeps handing it to him on race weekends, expect the younger man’s shares to continue to soar.
Daniel: “I’m saying an 8 out of 10.”
Lando: ?Watch the full video on YouTube. ?
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) June 29, 2021