Brown on Norris: “I don’t think he probably gets enough credit for how awesome he can be”

Zak Brown has heaped praise on Lando Norris, feeling the McLaren F1 Team driver continues to deliver performances even when the team are not expecting them to happen.

Norris ended seventh in the Drivers’ Championship at the end of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, and he was the only driver outside of the top three teams to secure a top three finish, the Briton securing third place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

He completely dominated the inter-team battle with Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian scoring only thirty-seven points compared to Norris’ one hundred and twenty-two, and perhaps contributed to McLaren’s decision to bring in Oscar Piastri as his team-mate for 2023.

Brown, the CEO at McLaren, spoke about the way Norris continues to improve as a Formula 1 driver ahead of his fifth season in the sport, with the twenty-three-year-old putting in Qualifying laps that seem to come out of nowhere.

“He’s just getting better and better,” Brown said on McLaren’s social media channels.  “He puts together some amazing qualifying laps, I don’t think he probably gets enough credit for how awesome he can be when it’s time to set a lap.

“We’ll be in FP3 and then, bang, there it comes in qualifying when he needs to do it in Q3 and [we’re like] “‘Wow, where’d that come from?” And he does that often.

“He makes very few mistakes, rarely makes a big mistake. So, if I look at what he started versus now, he’s got a very high level of confidence, but not arrogance.

“He’s definitely at one with the team and the racing car. He puts together unbelievable qualifying laps and his race craft – I think if I look at season one to now, his race craft is exponentially better.”