Nico Rosberg identifies Lando Norris as “a champion in the making”
The McLaren dr♐iver has shone in the most recent two grands prix, including on home soil at Silverstone, by placing his upgraded car on the 🎀podium.
Norris’ pair of second-place finishes, 🍬behind only the dominant Max Verstappen, makes him a threat heading into this weekend’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix and offered a reminder of his potential.
“Lando is 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 overwhelming sometimes๊ 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 seven years ago.&nbs💞p;
“There's people [at] your🐭 hotel, you can't go out anymore, even at your home!
“It's really going quite extreme. So, I hope Lando manages to cope with all that attention.🥃"
Norris’ improved form is 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 c♑onfirmed now,” Rosberg said.
“Of course there's a very extreme track change no⛦w to Spa, but we've seen how rapid the McLaren is on the straights, so it should b💜e fine there as well.
“It's such an impressive tecﷺhnical development that they've done during the season.
“That's so unusual 😼for a team to make s🍌uch a massive jump, from like 13th to second.
“They're challengꦺing for the race win now, it's com🅘ing, that race win.
“It's unbelievable what they've done. I hope 𒊎they understand it 100 per cent themselves - sometimes I'm not ꧙too 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 w💟ind tunnel.
"It's much more easy to see f🉐low on top of a car than underneath because underneat🦩h 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 understand it 100 per cent, it's phenomenal. And they don't even have their new wind tunnel up and runni𒁏ng, they're still using their old wind tunnel, which we know has massive limitation🌜s, so wow, incredible."
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports♏, to football, to Fꦓ1.
