Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen is the latest driver to tip Formula 3 star Lando Norris for a bright future.
Verstappen tips Lando Norris as a star of the future
Mick Schumacher is arguably the highest profile driver in European Formula 3 this year, being the son of Michael Schumacher – F1’s most successful driver of all time with 91 wins, 155 podiums and seven world championships to his name. Verstappen offered the 18 year old some advice however, as he competes in the series: “If I had to give Mick some advice, then it would be to concentrate completely on yourself. Don’t look left and right to the others,” he said.
Although Mick Schumacher is the driver with the biggest name on the grid, the German driver is only 11th in the Drivers’ Championship – a championship that is being led by rookie Lando Norris.
Britain’s Norris recently impressed many in the paddock during F1’s in-season test at Hungary where he drove for McLaren, and Max Verstappen was one such driver who had his breath taken away by the 17 year old: “My impressions are probably no different than yours,” he said. “Lando Norris is very strong, and he is only 17 years old. Clearly he is promising for the future and a driver we’ll hear a lot about.”
Verstappen famously graduated from Formula 3 to Formula 1 in 2015 to drive for Toro Rosso, being promoted to Red Bull Racing the following year and winning on his race debut to become F1’s youngest race winner. The flying Dutchman believes that F3 was a good place to develop as a driver, with the series acting as a springboard to his F1 stardom: “I was able to learn a lot and found that the cars are not unlike Formula One,” he said.
In 2017, Norris has secured seven wins in Formula 3 for Carlin, as well as securing eight further podium finishes in the 21 rounds that have been contested so far. By comparison, at this point in the season when Verstappen was racing in F3 in 2014, the driver also had seven wins to his name, although he had fewer podium finishes. He ultimately went on to finish in third in the championship with 411 points, being beaten to the championship by Esteban Ocon who beat his nearest challenger by a mighty 58 points.
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