Zak Brown makes Lando Norris admission in Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen claim

Lando Norris of McLaren celebrates after taking victory at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix

For the past several seasons, Formula 1 has been a one-man battle for the World Drivers’ Championship, with either Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen charging to the front. But Zak Brown thinks a new driver has a shot.

That driver is, of course, McLaren’s own Lando Norris. While Brown doesn’t dismiss the importance experience plays in winning Grands Prix, he’s confident that Norris is getting ever closer to taking the all-important F1 title.

Zak Brown: Norris is ‘perfectly capable of winning the world championship — now’

Speaking to media at the British Grand Prix, including PlanetF1.com, McLaren CEO Zak Brown expressed his confidence in driver Lando Norris.

“To win the Formula 1 world championship, everyone needs to be at 100 percent,” Brown said.

“I think Lando is learning every time he’s out there. He’s got the benefit of one win.

“Max, Lewis and Schumacher — when you have won as much as they have won, that gives you a lot of experience.

“Lando is still getting that experience of winning Grands Prix, which I think is great, because the only way to do that is to get stuck in there, and I think he’s just going to continue to improve.”

While Norris only has one win to his name thus far — the 2024 Miami Grand Prix — his presence at the front of the grid all year long is certainly setting him up for continued shots at taking victory in Formula 1.

And Brown has the utmost confidence in Norris to get the job done.

More on McLaren and Norris’ championship hopes

 Lando Norris makes frustration clear after ‘throwing away something that should have been ours’

 Sergio Perez pressure mounts as McLaren sense ‘open window’ for F1 title glory

“As a driver, I think he’s perfectly capable of winning the world championship — now,” Brown said.

“But it doesn’t mean he still can’t get better.”

To further clarify what he meant, Brown continued, “I think Max is a better driver today than he was year one, year two of his championship, so I think these drivers continuously refine their game.”

That’s certainly also true of Norris. The British racer had been courting his first F1 win for years before he finally sealed the deal in 2024.

But as any F1 fan or driver knows, there are many variables to master during a race weekend, all of which contribute to a driver’s ability to fight to the lead of a Grand Prix. Hamilton, Verstappen, and Schumacher all learned how to respond to those variables.

As Brown stated, Norris will still have work to do — but having his boss’ complete confidence in his abilities will surely be a great boost.

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