Current Lando Norris

So a fan favourite is no longer in the series so Lando is drafted in to soften the blow for all the hardcore fans........but enough about Star Wars we're here to talk about F1. Yes the only other Lando you know will make his F1 debut with McLaren this year and if McLaren aren't already in talks with Disney about a special Star Wars promotion on the car for some races this year then they really are out of touch with the world.

Lando Norris (cue FB posting a pic of Norris from Coronation Street) is a 19 year old whizz kid from Bristol. I've watched him quite a bit over the years and from the very first moment I saw him drive the words 'next Lewis Hamilton' floated into my brain. He has won championships in every series he has raced in.......until last year. When he was announced in F2 i quickly tipped him for the championship but, like many times before, I was proved to be wrong. There is no doubt he was quick and he was in the slightly slower Carlin car but no question he was out classed by both Russell and Albon. Why is a harder thing to put your finger on. He was quick and was often in the right positions in the race but the results did not come his way. It might be explained away by the fact his entry into F1 was a sure thing from around half way through the season as it was quite clear that if McLaren didn't sign him Toro Rosso would. Maybe he took his eye off the ball in F2 because of that? Who knows.

However Norris got here he is now here and will be driving a McLaren already tipped to be at the front of the midfield pack. We have of course been promised this before. His team mate is one Carlos Sainz and in my mind Sainz is really ripe for the taking. It's not talked about much (mainly because Zak Brown owns the motorsport press) but Sainz was really torn a new one by Hulkenberg last year. I can't remember one race where he did something special. So what Norris has ended up with is a team mate who is highly rated but seems to have lost form. If Norris beats him this year there is no doubt it will sky rocket his rep. In my mind Norris's only job this year is to beat his team mate.

As good a rep and opportunity Norris has I can't help but notice the road block up ahead for him. He is part of the McLaren junior programme and he is already in a Mclaren so he's top of the tree. Unfortunately I don't see McLaren ever getting back to the front of the grid in the current F1 climate. This means at some point Norris will have to make a switch to one of the big 3. The problem with that is that the big 3 already have their young stallions in their stables and it's going to take a bit of luck or some really good form for Norris to displace one of them.

We are getting ahead of ourselves though. First things first though let's see how the kid does this season.

Anyone excited for Norris?
 
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We have some sparkling new talent coming in to F1 this year, I wonder which of them will have had the fizz knocked out of them by twhe end of the season. Lando is following in the footsteps of Stoffel Vandoorne and we know how well that went.
 
Lando was the briefly the beneficiary of the sporting dream of Bristol born Billionaire and Bristol City Chairman Steve Lansdown.

Lansdown has created Bristol Sport to bring a number of Bristol's sports teams under one roof and back them. So far Bristol Sport oversees Bristol City and Bristol City ladies Football Clubs, Bristol Rugby and Bristol Ladies Rugby clubs, Bristol Flyers basket ball and Bristol Jets badminton. For a brief while, there was Bristol Sport Racing which was created to back Lando in F3.
 
lando Norris started the 1st few races fantastic. then did drop back but credit to lando that as you say Russell & Albon were on different level in F2. but his consistency was fantastic that despite winning the 1st race & thats it & russell had 7 wins. he finished in top 5 15 times after that. with pole at penultimate round in sochi he was only 18pts behind & if it wasnt for the worst luck ive ever seen hit a sportsman he wouldve gone into abu dhabi as a huge contender, couldve won the F2 championship

im worried about Lando Norris, stoffel vandoorne couldnt have come into F1 with a bigger reputation. in my opinion 4 GP2/F2 best drivers in its history are Hamilton, Hulkenburg, Leclerc & Vandoorne, Stoffel broke record after record he was dominant & untouchable in that 2nd season, but bombed out of F1 in quick fashion & was pretty terrible in 2018
 
Yeah but Vandoorne also has Alonso as a team mate so was always going to be treated as a number 2 driver. Norris will have at least equal treatment against Sainz.
 
And if Sainz and Norris have any sense they'll realise that given how competitive the midfield will be this season they will gain infinitely more by working closely together.
 
The good thing is Mclaren had a bad season last year so the pressure is less on him and certainly don;t expect him to match the results that Hamilton achieved in the first year as rookie

He's been getting the miles so that at least further ahead of George Russell who would be his target to beat this season apart from his own teammate.

Chances are that his other rival from F2 Albon has probably got the fastest car of the 3 rookies at the start of the season. I think tracks where he knows well during the European season he should be able to shine more
 
An impressive start to his first F1 race weekend. It will be interesting to see how Lando's race develops.
 
Sadly, Lando's race fizzled out after a great qualifying. Dropped 2 places off the line and then struggled to push into the top ten.

A promising weekend overall though.
 
Needs to keep his nose out of trouble on lap one though. It's the second race in a row where he's lost out in the first few laps.

If he can hook everything up over the course of a weekend then a top 4 spot is not out of the question and with a drop of luck, perhaps a podium.
 
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