Brown: 'McLaren will give Norris time to develop'

McLaren boss Zak Brown says that rookie Lando Norris will be given time to prove his mettle in his maiden season of Grand Prix racing.

The Woking-based outfit has chosen to allocate a race seat to the young 19-year-old Brit, unfortunately to the detriment of Stoffel Vandoorne.

Norris' track record in motorsport's junior ranks as well as his work as a development driver with McLaren have earned him a reputation as one of the sport's brightest prospects.

• McLaren's Norris sets himself 'unrealistic' goal for 2019

Still, Norris will need to succeed where others - like Vandoorne - have failed. But Brown vows to show patience with the young charger.

"Formula 1 can be a pretty cruel environment," the McLaren boss told The Sun.

"We need to manage expectations, not after three races, and pass judgment, which we as a sport are pretty quick to do.

"He will definitely be given time to develop. It is a high pressure environment and the first thing anyone does in Formula 1 is compare you to your teammate."

Norris will have a solid reference against which t measure himself this year, with 24-year-old highly rated Carlos Sainz sitting on the other side of the McLaren garage, who Brown labels as "extremely quick and experienced".

"We expect them to race each other hard, cleanly and, for sure, they need to get the measure of each other from time to time," he said.

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