McLaren junior and European Formula 3 champion, Lando Norris is aiming to learn as much as possible while also compare himself to Fernando Alonso when the two team up with Phil Hanson to compete in the Daytona 24 Hours next month.
The Briton, who is also now the third driver at the British F1 team, and the double world champion will be one of the United Autosports entries at America’s most famous endurance race and for Alonso, it is building experience ahead of a possible attempt at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota.
For Norris, however, he admitted the chance to race alongside the Spaniard was a large part of his decision to race at Daytona as he continues his climb up the motorsport ladder.
“Obviously, I’d like to do well, but I think it’s a more of a good opportunity to learn from Fernando. I definitely don’t want to let that opportunity go to waste,” he commented.
“I’ll get to know a lot more about the work ethic of an F1 driver, even though he’ll be driving a different car, he’ll still want to do as well as he can. He’ll particularly want to beat his teammates and he’ll work as hard as he can to improve the car. Wherever I can, I’ll try and take onboard everything he does.”
While considering himself very much the apprentice, Norris, who impressed during his first test with McLaren in Hungary back in August, is also keen to measure his own speed against Alonso, hoping there will be some internal competition.
“I’d like to prove what I can do against him, especially in qualifying,” the 17-year-old admitted. “Daytona is a team game, so I realise that we’ll be sharing the seat and working together but I’d like to think there’ll be a bit of a competition about who can do a better job in practice and qualifying.
“Whoever does the best has done the best, but it’s still a great opportunity to learn not from him.”
Looking ahead to 2018, Norris will combine his third driver duties at McLaren with a full F2 campaign with the returning Carlin team. Heading into the series as European F3 champion there are high expectations and no-one is putting the pressure on more than himself.
“The aim is to win the title but I think that’s going to be quite tough,” he said. “I think top three would be more realistic but I said that this year and ended up winning!
“The other day, I said if I wanted to prove I was as good as Charles Leclerc or better, then I needed to win but F2 is a much tougher category than F3, with a lot more variables.
“It’ll be tougher to win as many races as in the past but Leclerc has proved he can do it. It’s hard to say until I get to the first race but I’m confident in what the team can do.”
