We may be witnessing the next top British driver and, perhaps, a future World Champion as well.
Round two of the 2021 Formula One season at Imola, Italy, continued to deliver what we had all expected–Hamilton versus Verstappen. But there was something else to cheer about, too. McLaren’s Lando Norris shined brightest in the rain as he equalled his career-best finish with a 3rd place.
This is Norris’ 3rd season in F1 and, after two very good years at McLaren with Carlos Sainz as a teammate, he is now paired with Danny Ricciardo, a proven race winner. Many saw the change as a significant step up for Norris. And while it is far too soon to judge Norris as a driver compared to Ricciardo, Norris is showing that he has race talent. The proof is his 4th-place finish in Bahrain and last Sunday’s podium-grabbing performance at Imola,
https://youtu.be/IPM8cI2nb44
That said, we shouldn’t dismiss Ricciardo. Drivers who change teams often struggle with their new cars. That is happening now with Ricciardo at McLaren, and it applies to 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, too. Vettel has yet to score a point at Aston Martin, and he is comfortably outpaced by Lance Stroll. Sergio Perez has endured two error-strewn weekends so far at Red Bull, and Carlos Sainz is struggling to match the pace of Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.
Ricciardo also initially struggled in 2019 when he moved from Red Bull to Renault. But he quickly came to terms with the car and delivered excellent performances and results. Many believe it is only a matter of time before Ricciardo starts to get the best out of the McLaren car, and only then will we see a true representation of how Norris compares. But so far, it looks like Norris is not going to let Ricciardo have it all his way.
At Imola, Norris showed great pace from the first practice session as he matched the times of both Mercedes and Red Bull cars at the top of the timesheets. He was inches away from securing his best qualifying result of 3rd place on the grid, only to fall foul of the stringent track limits rules. With that, his time was deleted, and he had to settle for 7th place on the grid.
But that was the only mistake he made all weekend, and, as all great racers do, he quickly put the disappointment behind him and bounced back in the race.
The race started in extremely tricky wet conditions, and most drivers struggled to keep their cars on track. Nicolas Latifi had a big accident, and Mick Schumacher crashed behind the safety car. That incident showed just how tough race conditions were.
Despite mayhem around him on Sunday, Norris kept a calm head on his young shoulders. He was one of the few drivers who made a clean start to the race. But he soon found himself behind Ricciardo. McLaren then made a difficult call–to ask Ricciardo to let Norris pass. With full credit to Ricciardo, he obeyed the instruction. And, from that moment, Norris’s race came alive.
Norris showed great skill and precision to pull away from Ricciardo at over two seconds a lap, demonstrating the pace advantage he had. When a red flag halted the race on lap 34 after a major crash between Valterri Bottas and George Russell, Norris was in 3rd place behind Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
At that point, McLaren made the brave decision to fit Norris with the soft compound tyres to give him a better initial pace. But those tyres are also less durable than the medium compound that many drivers had selected on this day. Yet, it was a crucial decision that paid off in the end. Norris passed Leclerc into 2nd place at the race restart and then drove expertly to keep the Ferrari behind–despite being on worn-out tyres by the end of the race.
Unfortunately, Norris was passed by the recovering Lewis Hamilton, who had slipped down the field after his own mistake on the lap before the red flag was brought out. Norris put up a brave and tough fight to hold Hamilton behind, but ultimately the pace of the Mercedes car (aided by DRS) was too much.
Norris was rightly voted the Driver of the Day. He may have also stepped out of the shadow of George Russell, his fellow 2018 GP2 graduate. With a link to Mercedes, many see Russell as Hamilton’s successor. Norris, on the other hand, has been very much under the radar during his first two years in F1. But with a steadily improving McLaren car and a new proven top-class teammate alongside, he is now coming to the attention of the F1 public.
It’s about time, too. Lando Norris is a top-class racer and proven winner in every category up to Formula One. Perhaps this will be the year when he steps out of the shadows and shows that he–not Russell or others–maybe Hamilton’s heir.
Could it be that we are in the early stages of witnessing the next top British driver in Formula One and, perhaps, a future World Champion as well?
