'Norris is a future world champion'

'Norris is a future world champion'

Martin Macdonald

Saturday 8 September 2018 10:57

McLaren chief Zak Brown has backed his new driver, Lando Norris, to become a Formula One world champion in the future but stopped short of comparing the youngster to his compatriot, Lewis Hamilton, as he does not want to add unnecessary pressure on the rookie.

With Fernando Alonso announcing his retirement from F1 to focus on his World Endurance Championship, McLaren were forced to assess their options for the 2019 season.

Article continues under video

Ultimately, they chose to promote Norris and recruit Carlos Sainz with Stoffel Vandoorne being ditched.

Brown believes that they now have a future world champion in their ranks, but refused to indulge the comparison to Hamilton, as both drivers were viewed as young wonderkids when they made their debut.

"I think he is a future world champion," Brown said.

"We don't want to draw comparisons to other drivers, that's part of what might put too much pressure on him too quickly," Brown said.

"Lewis is a unique individual who may go down as the most successful F1 driver ever. Lewis walked into an outstanding race car. He (Norris) is arriving to a winning team with a losing car."

Norris has impressed in the junior divisions of motor racing, and it is Brown's opinion that he would have been approached by another team for a 2019 seat had McLaren not opted to promote him to F1 for his debut.

"There were a lot of F1 teams that wanted him so he's certainly here on merit," the McLaren boss continued.