Lando Norris is entering his seventh full-time season in Formula 1 and stands a chance of winning his first title if McLaren’s advantage is to be believed.
McLaren heads into the first race at Melbourne looking like the favourites, after Norris put in blistering lap times on the second day of pre-season testing.
Although McLaren won the Constructors’ Championship for the first time since 1998 in 2024, Norris made a lot of mistakes last year which ultimately cost him a chance to win the Drivers’ title.
Zak Brown compared Norris to Lewis Hamilton, and is adamant that he has learned from his mistakes and will race main title rival Max Verstappen differently this year.
Norris’ former team boss in F2 was also ‘blown away’ by what she heard him saying in engineering meetings according to BBC Sport.
Former Carlin boss ‘blown away’ by Lando Norris in McLaren engineering meetings
Norris competed in Formula 2 with Carlin prior to making it to F1 in 2018, where the Briton went up against George Russell and Alex Albon for the title.
It was Norris third season in junior formulas with Carlin, having also competed with them in British F4 and European F3, having also been touted as a future talent by Trevor Carlin.
Before the team was sold last year, deputy team principal Stephanie Carlin joined McLaren as business operations director, and was impressed by how much Norris had changed since his days racing in feeder catagories.
“I sat in engineering and heard him giving feedback,” said Carlin. “And I was blown away. I just could not believe the development of this teenager I’d known, a very successful F2 driver and champion in F3 and F4. It was incredible.”
McLaren engineers ‘shocked’ by Lando Norris data in pre-season testing
It is looking increasingly likely that McLaren will be the team to beat at the start of the season, with Russell claiming that Mercedes is ‘not capable’ of beating them in the opening rounds.
McLaren engineers were reportedly ‘shocked’ by how good Norris’ runs were in the MCL39 during pre-season testing at Bahrain, with him roughly 30 seconds quicker than Mercedes Andrea Kimi Antonelli during race runs.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration
Nearly the whole F1 paddock thinks McLaren are the team to beat at Melbourne, with Red Bull having to scramble to find a solution to the problems Verstappen brings up in engineering meetings.
Ted Kravitz predicts a McLaren one-two at the opening race, although surprisingly backed Russell for a third-place spot over Lewis Hamilton or Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari which looked slightly better on race runs in Bahrain.
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