Picture via McLaren Media Centre

F1 News

McLaren looking to learn from previous young driver mistakes

McLaren looking to learn from previous young driver mistakes

05-09-2018 12:25

Lando Norris has become the next in line of young drivers to make their debuts with the McLaren team, after it was announced he would be replacing Stoffel Vandoorne for the 2019 season.

Norris joins Carlos Sainz at the Woking-based team after Sainz’s fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso announced that he would be retiring after a long and illustrious career in the sport.

It is the first time that McLaren will have a completely new driver line up since 2007, when a young English rookie partnered a Spaniard signed from Renault.

Sound familiar? The are clear similarities between the partnership of Lewis Hamilton and Alonso in 2007, but unfortunately for Sainz and Norris, McLaren are very unlikely to be fighting for race wins or the title next season.

McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown has also stated intentions to be careful with young Norris.

The team haven’t got the best record with rookie drivers since Hamilton, dropping Kevin Magnussen after one season and Vandoorne after two, so Brown is keen to look after their latest talent.

“What we need to do is manage him carefully, that we don’t get ahead of ourselves with comparisons to other drivers,” Brown explained.

“You look at someone like [Charles] Leclerc, he was in trouble the first couple of races, maybe because expectations were too high and he made a couple of mistakes, and there were stories two races into the championship that maybe he isn’t who we thought he was. Now it looks like he’s going to Ferrari.

“So I think we have to be very careful not to set the bar and expectation so high that after Free Practice 1 in Australia, we’ve all come to conclusions on whether he’s the next superstar or not.”

Brown also expects his new driver to make his fair shar of mistakes, which is typical of all rookies.

“We need to give him some time. He’s going take some time to settle in. He’s going to go to some tracks he’s never seen before. He’s going to have some shunts.”