Britain's next F1 superstar - Why Lando Norris is a young man in demand

McLaren chief executive officer Zak Brown’s phone appears to have been ringing off the hook lately with people chasing Lando Norris’ signature. Rob Watts looks at why the young Brit appears to be top of many teams' shopping lists right now.

Lando Norris’ career trajectory has been on a path towards Formula 1 for some time, and the McLaren protege looks on course to win the F2 championship this season at his first attempt - his sixth single-seater title in just four years.

Now with Fernando Alonso’s Le Mans triumph moving him a step closer to the coveted motorsport triple crown, Norris will surely get his chance to become a McLaren race driver if the Spaniard opts to end his 17-year career in F1 at the end of the year.

But what about this season? It was revealed last week that Toro Rosso had made an enquiry about taking Norris ‘on loan’ for the remainder of this season, replacing Brendon Hartley who has struggled for results since being drafted in toward the end of last season.

Brown’s response, unsurprisingly, was a firm ‘No!’, but the McLaren chief revealed this week that three teams had, in fact, inquired about Norris’s availability. For a 19-year-old yet to make his grand prix debut, that’s a clear indication as to how highly-rated he is within the F1 paddock.

MORE: Red Bull interested in Lando Norris, admits Marko

And the signs are there already that Alonso is considering it. He was quoted by the Guardian as having said: "I will make my mind up after the summer what I will do next year but after winning Le Mans, [the Indy 500] comes into play with a high priority.”

With a Le Mans triumph to add to his 2006 Monaco win, two out of three ain’t bad for F1’s enigmatic Spaniard, but with little chance of adding a third F1 title to that list, surely Alonso’s best bet now is to head stateside and focus his efforts on winning the ‘The Great American Race’ if he has ambitions to finish career on a high.

McLaren chief Brown is a racer at heart, but a marketing man by trade. He knows how important it is to have Alonso in his car, and with rumours of a McLaren IndyCar programme for next season, the PR potential of taking his number one driver stateside won’t be lost on him.

At the same time, McLaren cannot afford to train Norris, their brightest young talent, only to lose him to a rival team. At just 18, Norris is bright, ambitious, marketable, and being a Brit will no doubt help attract new sponsors to the team.

Drivers like Norris don’t come around too often. McLaren have some big decisions to make.