Early success gives Norris 'breathing space' says Brown

McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown is pleased that two strong performances in the first Grand Prix races of 2019 mean that Lando Norris has earned himself some invaluable breathing space.

The 19-year-old was the star of qualifying in Melbourne when he successfully got all the way through to the final top ten pole shoot-out round at his very first attempt.

Although he didn't score any points in that race, he set that right with a sixth place finish in last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix to earn the team its first championship points of the year.

McLaren sporting director Gil de Ferran described Norris' performance on Sunday as "nothing short of spectacular". It means that critics waiting to pounce on the rookie at the first sign of weakness will have to back off, according to Brown.

• Norris adamant McLaren is finally 'on the way up'

"It is good he has come out of the gates strong because it will give him a little bit of space," he said. "He has got a little bit of a breather now.

"It gives him a bit of breathing space, because for sure he is going to make a mistake here at some point," Brown told Motorsport.com this week. "It is such a high pressure environment.

"If he goes out and does something silly in China not everyone is going to jump on him in the same way that they would if he went out made a mistake in Australia in FP1."

No one is immune to criticism in F1. Last year, Charles Leclerc was firmly in the crosshairs after his first mediocre outings at Sauber, only to come good and deliver a breakout rookie season that saw him promoted direct to the Ferrari squad in 2019.

"Just look at Leclerc last year," Brown agreed. "It was after three races that people were asking when he was going to get fired. And now, he should have won in Bahrain!"

Norris had looked on the fast track to F1 ever since clinching the 2017 FIA European Formula 3 title.

But his Formula 2 campaign the following year didn't live up to expectations and he was beaten to the title by George Russell, leaving many to wonder if Norris wouldn't be better delaying his move into F1 in favour of a little more seasoning.

But Brown said that the F2 battle had been relatively unimportant to the team when it came to making its driver selection for 2019, which sees Norris paired with former Toro Rosso and Renault driver Carlos Sainz.

"It wasn't concerning because we saw what he was doing in our F1 car," he explained. "We knew at the end of the day that what we was doing in the F1 car was most important.

"He was great in FP1s when we put him in," Brown added, pointing out that he was consistently faster than Stoffel Vandoorne and almost a match for Fernando Alonso in the Friday morning sessions.

"His feedback was good too, so we tended to focus more on that than what was going on in F2."

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