McLaren impressed by rookie Norris' lack of mistakes

McLaren boss Zak Brown admits he is pleasantly surprised by the lack of mistakes Lando Norris has made so far in his Formula 1 career, especially due to his status as a rookie.

The Brit has struck an impressive partnership with Carlos Sainz, with both drivers coming in for the 2019 season to replace the departing Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne. They have combined to put McLaren fourth place in the championship with the ‘best of the rest’ moniker behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull.

Norris has taken to F1 like a duck to water in his first season, and carries himself like a much more experienced driver. Brown has praised the impact made by his drivers, as well as Norris’ tendency to avoid errors.

“I’ve been impressed with both our drivers. 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,” the McLaren team principal said. “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.”

We are currently in what is known as F1 ‘silly season’ as speculation grows as to where drivers will end up next season. McLaren are the first team to announce their driving line-up for next year - Norris and Sainz - and Brown claims this was done to avoid unneccessary rumours spreading.

“We like what we see. Both drivers are doing an excelling job,” Brown continued.

“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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