McLaren boss Zak Brown has backed protégé Lando Norris to “hit the ground running”, but has assured that the Briton’s progress will not be rushed.
Norris joined McLaren as a junior in 2017 and last year stepped up to the role of test and reserve driver, participating in several sessions at Grands Prix and official tests, as he was confirmed in a 2019 race seat.
The 19-year-old finished runner-up to Williams-bound George Russell in the Formula 2 championship, having romped to the Formula 3 title the previous year.
He will be the youngest McLaren F1 racer in history, and will be the youngest driver on the 2019 grid.
“I think Lando will hit the ground running and be on it right away,” said Brown.
“I’m sure he’ll make some mistakes along the way and that’s alright, as long as you don’t make the same one twice that’s the golden rule.
“But we are confident in his abilities and this is going to be a bit of a journey together so we are excited to get to know him more.
“I think Lando is very mature for his age. He’s been in a race car pretty much his entire life.
“Last year when we put him into free practice one, that was kind of the ‘is he ready now’ question.
“We knew he had the pace but is he ready now to deal with the pressures of being in F1. In every FP1 he was very impressive, he kept the car on the black stuff, I think he maybe visited the kitty litter once but did a great job but he was fast.”
Brown added that Norris’ personality was an influencing factor in McLaren’s ultimate choice.
“He’s quite a relaxed individual, he doesn’t seem to act any differently when the spotlight is on.
“We think he is ready otherwise we wouldn’t have put him in the car.
“[Sporting Director] Gil [de Ferran] has spent a lot of time with him and helping us analyse whether he’s ready and that was the conclusion that we came to.
“I’m sure he’ll make some rookie mistakes but we’re going to be here to support him.”
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