Andreas Seidl says Lando Norris proved he was "the right choice" in Australia

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl says that Lando Norris has more than proven himself as worthy of a seat at the team following a terrific first season, where he regularly scored points. 20-year-old Norris performed admirably in his debut year, scoring 49 points.

Norris became McLaren's youngest ever driver at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and Seidl says Norris proved he was the right option even before he'd begun the first race.

The Brit qualified a superb eighth in Melbourne, and Seidl recently told RACER: "For Lando as a rookie, it is clear to see that he was simply building it up over the course of the season.

"He was quick straight out of the box in Melbourne, he went into his first ever qualifying and ended up in Q3, which proved that it was the right choice to go for him and showed what a talent he is."

Despite the immediate show of talent, it is rare that a driver will immediately be on the pace in F1, and Seidl admits it took until after the summer break for Norris to really show what he's all about.

"At the same time it’s normal that he took his time also in order to build up experience and get more and more aggressive in the races — especially the race starts, where he took it more conservatively at the beginning of the season, because it’s important that he finishes the races to build up experience.

"Then I would say from the second half onwards he was a complete F1 race driver, because when you see the starts that he has done, how he’s doing the races, it’s impressive.

"He was simply a bit unlucky with technical issues and so on, which were many times in the way of big results."