Zak Brown says that Lando Norris' consistent progress in F1, season after season, has bolstered the Briton's confidence and now made him at one with the McLaren team and its car.
Save for his rookie year in F1 in 2019, Norris has scored at least one podium in every season he's enjoyed so far with McLaren, while he only nearly missed out on a race win in Russia in 2021.
On the eve of his fifth season with the Woking-based outfit, Norris' stock continues to ascend while his confidence and reliability levels also continue to grow.
And yet Brown believes that his driver still doesn't get the credit his performances deserve.
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"He’s just getting better and better," said Brown in an interview on McLaren's website in December.
"He puts together some amazing qualifying laps. I don’t think he probably gets enough credit for how awesome he can be when it’s time to saddle up."
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Brown says that when the pressure is on, Norris persistently delivers the goods.
"You know, we’ll be in Free Practice 3 and then bang, there it comes in qualifying when he needs to do it in Q3, and [it’s like:] ‘Wow, where’d that come from?’. And he does that often.
"He makes very few mistakes, rarely makes a big mistake.
"So he, if I look at when he started versus now, he’s got a very high level of confidence – but not arrogance – and he’s definitely at one with the team and the racing car.
"If I look at season one to now, his racecraft is exponentially better."
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This year at McLaren, Norris will be working alongside talented rookie Oscar Piastri who replaces Daniel Ricciardo at team papaya.
Brown believes that the outfit's blend of experience and young raw talent will benefit McLaren.
"We think Oscar is going to be a sensational racing driver," commented the McLaren Racing chief.
"If you look at his career to date, he’s won a lot of championships in his first year, which always tells you a driver’s special.
"You know, he’s got a great mental approach to the sport and now that we feel that Lando has a lot of experience, we feel like we have a great blend of experience and youth.
"Our experience just also happens to have youth. So, I think we sit here very excited with the potential of our driver line-up of Lando and Oscar for the foreseeable future."
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