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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has praised Lando Norris' maturity in 2019, in what is the Briton's rookie year in Formula 1.
Norris has made very few errors so far at McLaren, while also displaying strong pace, finishing in sixth place twice this year. He has also bagged another two top-ten finishes for the Woking squad.
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The 19-year-old has already been locked in for the 2020 season alongside Carlos Sainz, who also joined McLaren this season as a full-time driver.
“I’ve been impressed with both our drivers," Brown said. "Really pleased with our driver line-up, which is why we wanted to confirm it ahead of the silly season, which seems to be ramping up.
“Carlos has been extremely quick every weekend and then Lando specifically, he also is extremely quick, a quick learner. He’s not making some of the mistakes, knock on wood, that you maybe anticipate from a rookie driver.
"He drives quite mature, his feedback’s good, he gets along with Carlos very well, and both our drivers are driving for the team, so we’re just very pleased with their progress, so we thought we’d get that out of the way so we can continue with our programme, head-down and just keep racing.”
Brown added that McLaren saw enough from Norris to retain him for beyond 2019, as it looks to rebuild and pull itself away from a difficult handful of seasons.
"We like what we see. Both drivers are doing an excelling job," he said. "Specifically in Lando’s case, he now has enough races under his belt that we’ve seen him under pressure, we’ve seen him having to race his team-mate, we’ve seen him at the front of the field.”
“We’ve seen enough rounded elements to his driving to know that he’s one of the future stars of the sport. Again with the silly season ramping up, we want to not be part of that, keep our head down and just be focused on what we’re doing.”
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Pistonhead
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He's a breath of fresh air like Verstappen, like Russell - the last crop of rookies have been brilliant and have long futures in the sport. McL will keep Norris for another 2 years max if they dont make it to podium challenging levels again - but tbh, they ARE looking like they could do it - af... [Read more]