Future McLaren driver Lando Norris admits his sympathy for Stoffel Vandoorne, believing the Belgian was a victim of circumstances during his career.
Considered one of the hottest future prospects when finally getting his opportunity in Formula 1 at the beginning of last year, Vandoorne has struggled to grasp it going up against Fernando Alonso in an uncompetitive car.
Often finding himself near if not at the bottom of the timesheets, it was confirmed after Monza that the 26-year-old would be ousted with the 18-year-old current F2 driver stepping up.
“Stoff I rate as a pretty damn good driver, probably higher than most other drivers on the grid,” said Norris earlier this week.
“But I think getting put against Fernando, going into F1 when McLaren are probably at their worst ever, it’s not easy going from championships and always challenging for the win.
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“Going into a category where there’s 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.”
As for the expectations McLaren has of Norris when entering F1 fully next year, CEO Zak Brown sees little reason to be concerned.
“He’s very mature for his age in the racing environment. He’s quite relaxed, you don’t see him get nervous, I don’t see any anxiety out of him,” the American said.
“The way I saw him do free practice on in Monza, his build-up to that was kind of no different than I’d seen in Formula 3.
“I think he’s got a really good temperament for Formula 1. What that tells me is I don’t think he’ll be rattled easily by adversity which no doubt he will have at some point.”
