Zak Brown says he sees himself in Lando Norris at McLaren, ‘I wear my heart on the sleeve’

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Lando Norris has been part of McLaren since 2017, when he joined the team’s young driver programme. Zak Brown was one of the architects of that deal.

Speaking at the time, Brown celebrates the capture of a ‘fabulous prospect’. In the autumn of 2018, Norris signed his first full-time F1 contract.

Norris has gone on to become McLaren’s longest-serving driver, having recently surpassed David Coulthard’s benchmark of 150 starts. Last weekend in Abu Dhabi, he ended their 17-year wait for a drivers’ world champion.

As McLaren toiled in the midfield, Norris received interest from Ferrari, as well as Red Bull. But he kept faith in Brown’s long-term project and has been instrumental in its success.

Lando Norris is like Zak Brown, while Andrea Stella is more like Oscar Piastri

Speaking to The Times, Brown said that he saw himself in Norris, who also ‘wears his heart on his sleeve’.

By contrast, teammate Oscar Piastri is seen as more ‘reserved’, which reminds Brown of McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

While their personalities are different, their buy-in to McLaren’s culture has been the same. Many outsiders were adamant that Norris and Piastri would fall out as they chased the title, but the relationship was always healthy.

“They’re different guys, but very complementary,” Brown explains. “Lando wears his heart on his sleeve. I wear my heart on the sleeve. Andrea is very focused, more reserved, that’s how Oscar is.

“It’s almost like our two drivers are a bit like Andrea and I, which I think is a great complementary skillset.

“What they’ve got in common is they’re both great guys and team players. I think that’s contributed to having two drivers that can be where they are, versus if we had some other drivers on the grid, I’m not sure our approach would have the same outcome.”

Zak Brown’s message to Oscar Piastri after he lost F1 title

Norris and Piastri fought for victory at the opening race of the season in Australia and entered the finale just 16 points apart.

At one point, Piastri led the standings by 34 points, but his title bid slowly unravelled in the final third of the season.

Still, Brown is adamant that Piastri will be a world champion eventually, and expects him to be even better next year in what will be just his fourth F1 season.

Nico Rosberg felt Brown could have shown more ’empathy’ to Piastri on the radio after last Sunday’s race, when he celebrated McLaren’s success in holding off Max Verstappen.