02/02/2023
NEWS STORY
Ahead of his fifth season in F1, Zak Brown has likened Lando Norris to the sort of star player NFL franchises build their teams around.
"Lando's a franchise driver," the American tells ESPN. "Lando's one of those guys… if we put everyone in a dirt buggy and we put all the F1 drivers in a race, he'd be at the front because he's got that kind of natural talent.
"He's a total star," he adds, "and he's pushing us."
Entering F1 in 2019 with McLaren, Norris finished his maiden season 11th, and over the next couple of years progressed to 9th and then 6th, before slipping back to 7th in 2022, though this was more about the short comings of the car at his disposal insists Brown, who believes Norris to be a better driver than contemporary George Russell who scored his maiden win last season.
"He wants to be winning races," says Brown, "I'm sure he knows he can beat George and he has beaten George before.
"He's going to be anxious people he's raced with don't get too many more wins before he starts getting his."
Asked if he considers Norris to be among the best out there, Brown is in no doubt.
"Unbelievably fast," he responds. "He pulls it out in qualifying all the time. He can put a lap together. He rarely makes mistakes, and when he does they're very small. It's, 'he missed the apex, he locked a brake', but you don't see him sticking it in the fence.
"His race craft is really strong now. If I look at year one, he was a little too polite on track at times. Now he's someone you can race hard with and he'll race you hard, he's clean but he's hard, he gets his elbows out. He can manage tyres very well.
"I think he is as good as anyone on the grid and I've felt that from day one, when I put him against Fernando (Alonso) in the (2018) 24 Hours of Daytona, foreign car, foreign track.
"Fernando is as good as any F1 driver there's ever been, and Lando matches him, and depending on what time of day it was, maybe he even got him a little bit, and vice versa.
"You see that natural talent. You do get some drivers who are a one-make discipline and you throw them in a unique situation and they don't get up to speed as quickly."