Nico Rosberg identifies Lando Norris as “a champion in the making”
The McLaren driver has shone in the most recent two grands prix, including on home soil at Silverst🥀one, by placing ♔his upgraded car on the podium.
Norris’ pair of second-place finishes, behind only the dominant Max Versta𝄹ppen, makes him a threat heading into this weekend’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix and offered a rܫeminder of his potential.
“Lando i🌼s a champion in the making - he's world class,” 2016 F1 champion Rosberg told .
“He's incredible as a young driver.
“He has so much support, it's really amazing to see. It can be a bit o😼verwhelming sometimes also for young drivers to have so much attention and so much support.
"F1 has taken on dimensions now that it didn't have five or s💖even year👍s ago.
“There's people [at] your hotel, you can't go out anymore, eve💞n at your home!
“It's real🅺ly going quite extreme. So, I hope Lando ma🌌nages to cope with all that attention."
Norris’ improved form i🔯s backed up by the impressive finishes from teammate Oscar Piastri, as McLaren have established themselves as the second-quickest car in the past month.
"The McLaren car is the real deal🌺, that's confirmed now,” Rosberg sai𒈔d.
“Of courseཧ there's a very extreme track change now to Spa, but we'🧜ve seen how rapid the McLaren is on the straights, so it should be fine there as well.
“It's𝕴 such an impressive technical development tha🌺t they've done during the season.
“That's so unusual for a team to make such a massive j꧋ump, from like 13th to second.
“They're cha꧂llenging fo♔r the race win now, it's coming, that race win.
“It's𒅌 unbelievable what they've done. I hope they understand it 100 per cent themselves - sometimes I'm not too sure if they really understand everything because these aerodynamics are just so complex with the ground effect.
🦩“It's🐬 very, very difficult to fully understand in the wind tunnel.
"It's much more easy to see flow on top of a car than🃏 underneath because underneath then it also changes so much, with angle and with ride height, you know there's very rapid effects going on there.
"But if they do und💝erstand it 100 per cent, it's phenomenal. And they don't even have their new wind tunnel up and running, they're still using their old wind tunnel, which we know has massive limitations, so wow, incredible."
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from Amerꦓican sports, to football, to F1.
