'Lando-mania extremely strong' despite Hamilton heroics

Norris at Silverstone — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

'Lando-mania extremely strong' despite Hamilton heroics

British trio "huge" with the paying public

Sam Hall

Sunday 18 July 2021 11:00

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McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has hailed the growing rise of "Lando-mania" in the wake of his driver's stunning F1 season to date heading into the British Grand Prix.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton may have stolen the headlines in the early phase of the Silverstone weekend, but Norris has been in outstanding form this year, scoring over 100 points in a season for the first time and qualifying fifth for his home race.

Brown believes Norris' stock with the British fans is "very high", commenting: "It’s very clear that Lewis, George and Lando are huge with the British public.

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"I think the British, like lots of the different nationalities, have always got behind their drivers, whether it was Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jenson Button.

“In these countries, that is what makes it so exciting. When you go to Spain it is Carlos [Sainz] and Fernando [Alonso], and I think Lando-mania is extremely strong.

“George is the underdog in the car that he is in so the fans like to see him punching above his weight and then of course Lewis is statistically the most successful grand prix driver of all time."

Support for home drivers "great"

The British GP is the first to take place in front of a capacity crowd since the end of 2019 with over 100,000 fans in attendance on Saturday and 140,000 due to line the circuit for the main event.

After testing positive for Covid-19, Brown has been forced to miss the race weekend but has been keeping an eye on proceedings from a distance and that noticeably it was impossible to ignore the crowds.

“It’s great to see how packed the audience was," added Brown. "Even on Thursday, I was watching on TV, you could see how many people came out so it is great to see the support for all the British drivers.”