Lando Norris: How McLaren driver has developed into world title contender
A few games later, Norris joked to provide Alonso with a cup of tea at the American Grand Prix in Austin. But soon he was no longer an apprentice.
In his 2019 debut season, Norris immediately played a game with his teammate Carlos Sainz, who had four years of experience when the Australian destroyed then-seven-time champion Daniel Ricciardo when he joined the team in 2021.
By then, Alonso returned to F1 two years after the other categories. He exchanged helmets with Norris. The Spanish wrote the book he gave to Norris: “You are a star – a rock star.”
Norris quickly became a fan favorite with a different but ridiculous personality and was willing to show off his true self on social media. His public profile was built through the Covid-19 pandemic when he played video games live and he used it to build his own quadrant of gaming and lifestyle brands.
Brown said: “He used to be shy and he was still a quiet, shy guy. Although he was a little too outgoing, he actually didn’t. But as he became more mature, I’ve seen him become more comfortable on his skin.
“He never lacked confidence. When I first met him, he was a kid and he was 14. So what I saw outside of being a better racing driver, (IS) was a better team leader, with more specs in what he wanted. His track performance also evolved.”
Norris spent some time establishing his own leader in F1.
McLaren didn’t quite compete in the first few years they were together, though Norris was close to winning Outstanding performance in Russia in 2021 Just to misjudgment the coming weather, rather than wet the pits of the tires in the pouring rain.
Norris maintained his faith and signed two contracts despite Red Bull’s interest. Brown said it was due to “relationships, transparency, visibility into what we do. He was comfortable here. It was his family.”
Norris’ career trajectory turned into a year in mid-2023, a restructuring of McLaren’s engineering group Andrea Stella, who was the team principal last December.
The first fruit of Stella’s reorganization is the upgraded package for the Austrian Grand Prix in July 2023. It arched McLaren from close range and became the closest challenger to the dominant Red Bull.
