McLaren is preparing the 2023 season in which they will try to attack fourth position in the Constructors’ World Championship with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastriafter losing the battle against Alpine last year and release Daniel Ricciardo.
For this they have renewed the team from the head of the team, with the arrival of Andrea Stella, until the pilots with the arrival of the rookie Piastri to replace Ricciardo. Although the main reason for him to believe in his competitiveness is still having Lando Norris in his ranks.
This has been stated Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, in an interview with ‘ESPN’. And the certainty of the talent they have with Norris is based on a comparison… with Fernando Alonso.
Brown fielded both together in 2018 at the 24 Hours of Daytona on the same team. Luck was not on the side of the team, which could only be 38th after being stopped for two hours due to brake problems. Despite this, Norris’s performance impressed the Briton.
“I think norris is as good as anyone off the grill and I’ve felt it from the first day when I put him against Fernando at the 24 Hours of Daytona with a strange car and track. I think Alonso is as good as any F1 driver there has ever been and Lando matches him, and depending on the time, he may be a bit better and vice versa,” he stated.
Directing both in 2018 he was able to compare them and justify the comparison between the two: “They have that natural talent. Then you have some riders who are from one discipline, from one make, and when you put them in a different situation they don’t adapt as quickly.”
Brown has blind confidence in Lando Norris and his main reason for doing so was that the British competed one on one with Fernando Alonso.
