McLaren sees growth for Norris: "He is more aware of himself and the car"

It was a good move by McLaren to bring Lando Norris to the team in 2019: In addition to his racing talent, his personality has made him an audience favourite.

Norris became especially popular because of the way he showed his personality, including his interaction with fans on his Twitch channel. Here he was often seen when there was no racing due to the coronavirus.

However, the fact that he also has a serious talent for racing became especially clear last season. He was able to start the season with his first podium finish and showed some great overtaking during races.

Lando Norris has grown as a driver

Andrea Stella, Racing Director at McLaren, saw Norris grow in multiple ways over the past two years. "I think Lando is a very strong racer now. He was occasionally plagued by technical problems but didn't complain, which I really like about him. He doesn't say: 'I'm the best, but because of the problems I couldn't show it'", says Stella to Motorsport.com.

"We can really see his growth as a driver, also in terms of his consistency, driving the desired lap times, tire management and so on. These are some of the key areas in which we have seen him grow."

Stella continues: "He is also more aware of himself and the car. When things didn't go so well, he used to often point to himself, but I think we helped him to distinguish between what's up with the car and what's up with him. This has also made his feedback more accurate".