Monthly Archives: February 2023

Lando Norris ranked as Formula 1’s best driver after Max Verstappen, with McLaren’s superstar Brit ready to beat Lewis Hamilton to titles

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Move over Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris is now the best Brit in Formula 1.

That’s according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, who agreed that the Bristol-born superstar was F1’s best driver not called Max Verstappen last season.


Norris recorded yet another podium last season and kept Hamilton behind him on a number of occasions

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Eventual back-to-back title winner Verstappen broke a number of records during his second championship, including number of wins in a season, but Norris was almost as impressive just behind.

The 23-year-old was the only driver not in a Red Bull, Mercedes or Ferrari to record a podium finish, taking home the sixth rostrum of his career in Imola, many of them against the odds.

That consistency unsurprisingly earned him a sublime seventh-placed finish in the drivers’ championship, well ahead of the other 13 drivers in the same non-race winning category.

When asked by talkSPORT.com if Verstappen was the only driver to outperform Norris last season, McLaren boss Stella said: “I’m glad that you recognise it because I think that your comment is absolutely fair.

“I think Lando has been – if we consider exploiting the package – I think Lando has been maybe the second best driver last season.”

Norris himself was too modest to agree though, but feels his performances have been good for a while now.


Stella is supremely confident in his driver’s ability

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“I don’t know, I’m never one that thinks too much,” he said. “I’m not a guy who tries to boost my own ego and things like that.

“I believe I did a good job last year, I still believe I did a good job the year before even when I had my four or five podiums, so no, I feel like I’ve been doing well the last couple of years and I’ve been performing well.

“I definitely stepped it up a bit last year in terms of the consistency, probably delivering in a slightly more difficult and less performing car to drive, and I’ll just continue to do that, it doesn’t matter if last year was better or worse.”

Despite some heroic performances, and almost a race win in Russia 2021, Norris isn’t yet able to challenge for a title, which his talent undoubtedly deserves.


McLaren might be off the pace to start the season

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Pre-season testing in Bahrain suggested the team could be even further back this year, at least to begin with, and Stella admitted it’s up to them to give Norris the platform for success.

“For this year we do have to focus the team on improving the car,” he explained. “I think everything comes almost as a consequence of that.

“It’s the main focus of my activity as team principal now to put the technical area and the manufacturing area in the condition to exploit the talent that we have at McLaren.

“We will work on improving the performance of the car, I think from there, drivers and everything else comes as a consequence.”

For Norris, there’s also a new and possibly even more difficult challenge, too.

During his junior career, he was the young guy, punching up against the likes of George Russell and Alex Albon.


Norris’ incredible form saw Ricciardo end up out of the sport

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The situation was similar with Carlos Sainz at McLaren, and even more pronounced with nine-time race-winner Daniel Ricciardo, but he more than held his own against both.

With Ricciardo, it bordered on humiliation, the Australian seeing his contract terminated, and also get replaced by countryman Oscar Piastri.

It’s the first time Norris will be the senior driver in his career, and he could have hardly picked a more difficult challenge, with Piastri a Formula 2 and Formula 3 winner at the first time of asking.

Junior racing records quite literally don’t come any better than that, Norris adding: “Yeah, it’s impressive, impressive of course, one of the best junior careers of anyone that’s probably come into Formula 1.

“He’s a great asset for McLaren, hopefully he can help us as a team take that step forward compared to the last couple of years.


There’s an exciting new competitor in car number 81

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“Working with someone different is always good for myself, you pick up things, you learn things about the other drivers that you work with.”

But will his job change as McLaren’s undisputed number one for the first time?

“I think slightly,” he said. “I don’t think it changes that much. Even compared to last year I feel like I gave every bit of input that I could and needed to do.

“I guess it’s just a little bit more responsibility from the side of me being the elder driver mostly in Formula 1 but also the guy who’s spent more time with the team.

“In terms of referring back to things in the past in terms of 19, car, 20 car, 21, 22, so nothing changes drastically, just more responsibility within myself to help the team and give that info that Oscar isn’t able to give.”


Norris has impressed the big boys in F1

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Not only on the track is Norris just behind Verstappen, but off it too, with an Motorsport Network global fan survey ranking him the second most popular driver on the grid among voters.

His stock continues to grow, seeing much of his merchandise, including his sim racing brand Quadrant, sell out of new products in minutes.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, though, that’s seen him take a break from social media, having stressed the importance as a partner of the mental health charity Mind.

“Every driver’s different,” he explained. “I’ve spent a lot less time on social media.

“I haven’t really posted on my main account or my photography account for the last few months or so, I don’t need to, it’s not something I need to do.


Quickly becoming a global superstar, it’s only wins left for Norris to achieve

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“It’s a little bit part of the job but it’s not something I have to do, so when I want to forget about it and get along with normal life that’s something I can do.”

Well it doesn’t matter whether Norris wants to promote himself or not, his talent on the track and personality off it does that for him.

The question now is, can McLaren give him a car with the ability to compete for wins, because if they can, it may well only be Verstappen standing in the way of another British world champion.

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Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport