Andreas Seidl praises Lando Norris’ “impressive” rookie season

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has said Lando Norris’ rookie season in Formula 1 was “impressive” as he finished 11th in the standings and outqualified teammate Carlos Sainz.

Norris has been part of McLaren since 2017 when he signed on as a junior driver, winning the European Formula 3 Championship that year and coming second in Formula 2 in 2018.
 
For 2019 he was promoted to an F1 seat alongside Sainz as McLaren opted for a fresh driver line up to replace Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.
 
It proved a good choice as Norris qualified eighth in the opening race in Australia, kickstarting their season which saw them finish fourth in the constructors championship.
 
"Being a rookie and to have such a [good] rookie season is impressive," Seidl said as quoted by GPToday.net.
 
"When you go into your first F1 race and go straight to Q3 with a car that was not necessarily good enough for Q3, confirmed straight out of the box how great of a talent he is. 
 
"He has confirmed that several times during the course of the season, in qualifying but also in the races."
 
Seidl added that he could see the Briton’s approach to races change throughout the year, being more cautious at first.
 
"It was great to see how he was approaching his rookie season," he added. "He took it a bit more careful at the beginning of the season, when it came down to race starts for example, to make sure he finished the race and gained the experience.
 
"The second half of the season, he got more aggressive at the race starts so I would say he had a sensational rookie season, and we're looking forward to many more rookie seasons with him."