Norris wins dream drive in F1
‘Exciting talent’ will be youngest British driver Bold move by Mclaren after Alonso opts to quit
Lando Norris will become the youngest British driver in the history of Formula One after securing a remarkable promotion to a race seat at Mclaren for the 2019 season. The precocious talent, who turns 19 in November, finds himself poised to emulate Lewis Hamilton by joining the country’s most decorated team as a rookie.
While Norris had long been identified as an F1 star in waiting, his elevation to motorsport’s highest echelon came much sooner than expected, with Mclaren forced to move quickly in the wake of Fernando Alonso’s decision to retire.
The team had intended to give him a second year in feeder series Formula Two, but after Norris’s impressive F1 practice displays in Spa and Monza, it was felt time to reward him with the drive full time, in place of the underwhelming Stoffel Vandoorne.
It is a breathtaking honour for one so young and as yet untested. Mclaren, having already supplanted Alonso with Carlos Sainz Jr, had other options for their second seat: Esteban Ocon, for example, an outstanding product of Mercedes’ junior drivers programme and with 132 F1 points to his name at age 20.
But in a fascinating case of history repeating, they looked inhouse to anoint the next boy king. Just as Hamilton learned his trade under Mclaren’s umbrella in his teenage years, Norris has been amply supported by the team for the past 18 months. Here, though, the parallels should end. True, both are home-grown prodigies with Forlion