At 18 years old Lando Norris has the provincial Formula One world at his feet. Literally, at his feet, he is a McLaren protege, as Lewis Hamilton once was. The son of a banker, Norris left private school early to pursue his racing career. That decision has paid off, to date he has won multiple junior ranking championships and is currently placed second in the FIA F2 Championship. 

Lando Norris has been hailed as the next Lewis Hamilton. Such comparisons usually spell the beginning of the end of a fledgling F1 career. Many talented British drivers have entered F1 and many have failed to deliver. Will Norris become one of those failed stats? Lewis Hamilton is Lewis Hamilton. Comparing one driver to another is like comparing apples to grapes. Hamilton doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional F1 driver preferred by motor-racing traditionalists. Purely because of his mixed-race background. To be blunt it would look better in the media worlds view and those of the ‘traditionalists’ if a white British male was winning Formula One races. Lando Norris could fill this ethnic and marketing driven void. If he has the speed. But this isn’t about race, it’s about race winners. Lewis Hamilton is an exceptional driver of considerable talent, a worthy winner of multiple F1 drivers championships. It’s true to say that the best drivers always have the best cars. On rare occasions do underperforming cars win races and championships.  Prost, 1985, is one example. Michael Schumacher’s first season at Ferrari is another example. How Schumacher secured three race victories in a dog of a Ferrari, against the totally dominant 1996 Williams Renault is how reputations and legends are made. The best drivers can turn underperforming cars into race-winning machines. Lewis Hamilton is doing so this season. Can Lando Norris one day emulate this driver trait? It’s difficult to say. However, we do have some evidence. When Norris made his F1 testing debut at the Hungaroring in 2017 he set the second fastest lap time. At the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix Norris participated in Free Practice 1. Over 26 laps later he set a time faster than McLaren’s full-time driver, Stoffel Vandoorne. His performance at the Belgian Grand Prix was the beginning of the end of Vandoorne’s F1 tenure. McLaren subsequently signed Norris for the 2019 season, he will be partnering Carlos Sainz. But the real question is can McLaren develop a race winning car? McLaren F1 is a shadow of its former glory. That’s not a criticism its a painful fact. A change of regulations might help. However, a change of engine supplier didn’t see an upsurge of results. Switching from Honda to Renault power has not seen a return to winning ways. McLaren has gone backward and forwards all season in 2018. The team hasn’t won a race since the 2012 Brazillian Grand Prix. McLaren hasn’t been on the podium since 2014. Not even Fernando Alonso, who has outdriven the McLaren, who is the best driver on the grid and of his generation, not even his genius can overcome the failings of the MCL32. Lando Norris will be joining his illustrious new team at their lowest ebb. It is Alonso he should be trying to emulate, not Hamilton. If Norris can outperform Alonso in terms of speed and consistency and all round adaptability then he is more than living up to the hype. The media can become patriotic and or attached to drivers with whom they believe are talented. Norris has to ignore the media hype and just get on with the job if he wants to avoid becoming yet another ghostly statistic.  

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