Lando Norris arrived in F1 with quite a reputation because of his exploits in the feeder series. Getting an offer from McLaren was definitely dream come true for the Briton. Since then, he has only been with the Woking-based team. In fact, he has grown so fond of his team that despite dwindling fortunes; he signed a long-term contract that will see him stay at least until 2025. In all his 5 years with the team, he hasn’t won any race. Despite that, he has drawn comparisons with a man on the grid who is fabled to be the next big thing in F1.

Norris’ luck has definitely gotten worse as we moved from last year to this. In 2022, McLaren kicked themselves for narrowly losing 4th place to Alpine in the championship. However, little did they know the worse was yet to come. The worse arrived in 2023 when Zak Brown admitted the team was running behind on the car’s development. That showed in the results as well, as Lando finished 17th twice in as many races. Despite that, F1 journalist Tom Clarkson feels he is in the same boat as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

In a recent episode of the F1 Nation podcast, Clarkson said, “I see Lando’s situation is very similar to Charles Leclerc, actually at Ferrari. They have both been in Formula 1 for roughly the same amount of time, I think Charles came in 1 year earlier. They both want to take the next step, Lando wants to start winning races. Charles wants to start winning world championships and is Ferrari the place for Charles to do that?”

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Neither Lando nor his teammate Oscar Piastri has scored points from the first two races. However, Oscar put up an impressive display by making it in Q3 in Jeddah. That begs the question, ‘will McLaren prioritize the Australian over the Briton?’

McLaren urged to draw results out of Lando Norris while Oscar trains under his wing

Both McLaren teammates failed to score points in Saudi Arabia. That was despite the fact that Oscar started the race from P8. The reason was the contact he made right at the start of the race. Throwing away golden opportunities like the one in Jeddah won’t help his cause too much. To make sure it does not become a common occurrence, McLaren needs to teach the Australian rookie the tricks of the trade.

Clarkson continued, “They’re only a year different in age, Oscar and Lando, and this is Lando’s 5th year in Formula 1 and it’s Oscar’s first. Let Oscar learn the ropes away from the headlines. And then, when McLaren come good, hopefully in a couple of years’ time, he’ll be ready to make hay.”

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Do you think the Papaya team’s drivers can deliver a good result in front of Oscar’s home crowd in Australia this weekend? Drop in your predictions in the comments below.