Lando Norris may be replacing Stoffel Vandoorne next year at McLaren but the young Brit feels for the Belgian and believes Vandoorne was unlucky to lose his F1 seat at the team. Like Vandoorne, Norris will be joining McLaren from F2 having been a part of the team's young driver programme.
Norris explained that Vandoorne was a victim of unlucky circumstances and going up against one of the highest rated drivers on the grid would have been tough for any driver in their rookie years.
"Stoff I rate as a pretty damn good driver, probably higher than most other drivers on the grid," Norris is quoted by F1i.
"But I think getting put against Fernando, going into Formula 1 when McLaren are probably at their worst ever, it’s not easy going from championships where you’re in such a good team, always challenging for the win.
"Going into a category where there are so many good drivers out of how many drivers and people there are in the world, getting down to 20 drivers, they’re all pretty damn good," he added.
"I think it’s just an unlucky circumstance basically that he was thrown in probably at the deepest end possible."
Norris will be going up against Carlos Sainz when he gets to McLaren, the Spaniard joining the team from Renault in a situation similar to 2007 in which Fernando Alonso joined to line up alongside a rookie Lewis Hamilton at the Woking-based team.
Read more about:
Today
Popular on GPBlog
1
Vettel 'not allowed' to make F1 return: 'It's beautiful'
2759 times read
2
Russell claims he 'could have had two world championships' had he joined Hamilton at Mercedes earlier
842 times read
3
Brundle notices these worrying Hamilton traits in Ferrari data: 'It's always the same'
677 times read
4
Hamilton finds himself once again in a 'similar situation to what it was at Mercedes'
614 times read