McLaren CEO Zak Brown is confident the abilities of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris will make up for the departure of Fernando Alonso.
Still considered one of the best drivers on the grid even when he called time on his 17-year career at the end of 2018, the Spaniard was a key component of the British team as they tried to make progress up the grid.
Alonso is expected to retain a close relationship with McLaren though, including a likely test the new MCL34 at some point, and Brown doesn’t think his squad will miss the race-by-race advice Fernando brought.
“Carlos has a lot of experience and it is good that he has been in a couple of different teams.
“Lando has proven that he is extremely quick, so as far as ultimate performance of how fast our race car is, I think those drivers will get the most out of the car,” he told Motorsport.com
“They will be able to tell us [of areas to improve], someone like Lando does not have the experience of Fernando, nor the type of feedback, and it will take some time for him to develop, but for Carlos it is his fifth year in the sport [F1], so we are comfortable with our drivers.”
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The McLaren boss then talked up the former Red Bull junior, pointing to his demeanour and preparation for the upcoming season as reasons for optimism.
“I started to get to know Carlos before we signed him,” he said. “I like him a lot, otherwise we would not have signed him.
“As a person, I think he is very well managed, very educated, intelligent and has been around motor racing his entire life. I like his personality and his attitude.
“He is very dedicated, asks a lot of questions, and is very mature given his age but I think that is because of how long he has been in F1.
“Then, as a driver, from what we have seen so far, we are very impressed. He is aggressive, he is very engaged with the engineering team, and he wants to know what is happening.
“He spends time on the phone with me, the engineers, and he has done a lot of off-season conversations with Fernando.
“He is very engaged and I think he is very excited. I think he is fully up for joining us on our road to recovery.”