Mercedes F1 Comment on Lando Norris’ Drive Following Lewis Hamilton Praises

Over the past few races, McLaren star Lando Norris has been hugely impressive. In fact, the young Briton has even caught the attention of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. At the Austrian Grand Prix, the 21-year-old fended off Hamilton quite a while, and even though the latter ended up ahead of Norris, Lewis and Mercedes acknowledged the youngster’s “perfect” driving on the race track.

Norris proved that this was no flash in the pan, as he was just 0.048secs away from pole position. When the race kicked off, he became a massive headache for Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. And Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin acknowledged how quick Lando Norris was.

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He said, “You have got to sit very close, you are around one second behind, you have less downforce, the car is sliding around and the tyres get hotter and you lose grip. So it took Lewis most of that stint and once he did get by, you saw that he was able to pull a bit of a gap.”

Lewis Hamilton was all praises for Lando Norris

Hamilton noted that the McLaren star was driving fairly flawlessly and did not allow him to catch up. According to Shovlin, when a driver is stuck behind a rival, they have to either attack or wait for a mistake. This can range between a wheel lockup to a snap of oversteer on exiting a corner; the loss of momentum that follows would be enough for the car behind to pounce.

“When they are behind another driver, what they are really looking for is that driver to lock a wheel or get a snap of oversteer on exit that just holds them back enough so that they can actually make the move but unfortunately for Lewis through that stint Lando drove pretty much perfectly.”

Unfortunately for Hamilton, Norris drove a near-perfect race and found it difficult to overtake. In the end, he and Bottas jumped Norris due to the latter’s penalty. However, the young Briton recovered to catch up to them. Eventually, Mercedes was forced to use team orders to sacrifice Hamilton to a charging Norris and somehow keep Bottas ahead.

READ MORE: WATCH: Lewis Hamilton Praises Lando Norris Mid-Duel at the Austrian GP