Nico Rosberg identifies Lando Norris as “a champion in the making”
The McLaren driver has shone 💧in the most r⛦ecent 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 offered๊ 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. I🐠t can be a bit overwhelming sometimes also for young drivers to have so much attention and so m🍌uch support.
"F1 has taken on dimensions꧙ now that it didn't have five or seven ye𓂃ars ago.
“There's ♑people [at] your hotel, you can't go out aﷺnymore, 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 confirmed now🍸,” Rosberg said.
“Of course there's a very extreme track chang🍸e now to Spa, but we've seen ho♍w rapid the McLaren is on the straights, so it should be fine there as well.
“It's such an impressive technical development that the𓂃y've done during the season.
“That's so unusual for a team to make such a massive jump, from ꦚlike 🌄13th to second.
“They're challenging for the race win now, it🌟's coming, that race win.
“It's unbelievable what they've done. I hope they understand it 100 per cent themselves - sometimes I'm n🅘ot too sure if they really understand everything because these aerodynamics are just so complex with the ground effect.
“It's very, very difficult to fully understa💜nd in the wind tunnel.
"It's m🍸uch more easy to see flow on top of a car than underneath because underneath then it also changes so much, with angle and with ride height, y🍌ou 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 running, they're still using their old wind tunnel, which we know has massive limitations, so wow, incr♏edible."
James was a sportsꦗ journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American ꦫsports, to football, to F1.
