Norris reveals his ‘inevitable choice’ to lead LN4 Fusion squad

Lando Norris has chosen the motor racing veteran who will be in charge of running his ambitious new LN4 Fusion junior racing venture, a man the McLaren driver described as an “inevitable choice”, given his outstanding racing credentials.

Norris launched LN4 Fusion earlier this month with plans to establish a presence across the junior single-seater landscape, targeting the Italian F4 Championship, FRECA and Formula 3.

The latter programme is being built around the acquisition of AiX Racing’s assets, while the team has also submitted a bid to enter Formula 2, although that move has yet to be confirmed.

Such an expansive programme requires more than promising young drivers, however, and Norris knew from the outset that the person running the operation would be crucial to its long-term prospects.

That man will be Rene Rosin, the former Prema chief who has now been confirmed as Team Principal of LN4 Fusion.

A familiar figure from Norris' early career

Rosin was already a familiar face to Norris long before the pair became colleagues. The Briton first encountered Prema when he entered single-seaters, giving him years of opportunity to watch chef eexcutive build one of junior racing's most successful operations.

“A lot of the guys are people I’ve known for a long time, and I’ve known Rene for many years,” Norris told reporters.

“Since I started to go into single-seaters, I’ve raced against Prema since F4 so back in 2015, and I know him personally reasonably well, and so do my team around me.

“We wanted to put together a group which is experienced and knows how to lead a team, and not just create one good team, whether that’s in F2 or F3, but be able to put together a project and something long-term and know how to put people together.”

That emphasis on building something sustainable was clearly important to Norris.

• Read also: Norris launches LN4 Fusion race team and driver programme

With LN4 Fusion potentially operating across three junior categories from the outset, he wanted a leader capable of creating the infrastructure and culture to support the entire project.

And after years of observing successful teams from inside the F1 paddock, Norris believes he has a fairly clear idea of what that leader should look like.

'He was the inevitable choice'

“Over the last seven years, I’ve been able to experience what makes a good leader, a good team, and a lot of it starts with the person at the very top, and he is that person,” Norris explained.

“He is a guy who loves what he does, which is winning and creating a successful team and bringing people together to maximise things, so he was the inevitable choice at the end of the day.

“I don’t know if he was out of a job beforehand, but at the same time, he was available, and he was the guy we wanted, and he was the guy who was available.”

Rosin stepped back from his leadership role at Prema at the beginning of the year, ending a lengthy spell overseeing one of the benchmark operations in junior motorsport.

Now he has been handed the job of building something new.

For Norris, meanwhile, the appointment gives LN4 Fusion an experienced figure at the top as the project moves from an ambitious concept towards its first season on track.

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