Not Lando Norris, Zak Brown pegs McLaren debutant Oscar Piastri as the ‘future World Champion’
Zak Brown has named which driver from his McLaren pack he sees as the future F1 World Championship winner.
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The F1 fans have still not recovered from the Drivers’ Market drama surrounding the then-Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri, and now there is more news on him. Recently, Oscar Piastri’s boss at McLaren, Zak Brown, showered praise on the former F2 Champion, saying that he sees a future World Champion in him. This has come as a shocker to some fans since Brown has completely snubbed Lando Norris while claiming that Piastri might be the F1 Champion from his team.
Lando Norris is a rare talent, hailing from Britain, who got his ticket into F1 holding hands with McLaren. He had stood second in the Formula 2 Championship in his debut year in the league after winning the 2017 Formula 3 Cup. At only 19 years of age, Lando signed a contract with the papaya squad, and joined Carlos Sainz to drive for McLaren. In only his second race for the team, he narrowly missed out on a top 5 finish as he drew up in P6 at the Bahrain GP. Since then, Lando has amassed 438 career points and he has stayed with Zak Brown’s team till now.
But Zak Brown seems inclined to favor his newer recruit Oscar Piastri over Norris. Piastri has exemplary career results, with two teams–McLaren and Alpine–going as far as the legal court to recruit the young Australian. Finally, McLaren acquired him after spending am enormous amount, but Piastri is yet to deliver the results expected of him. In the first four races of his F1 career with McLaren, he has only managed to score 4 points after finishing 8th in Australia.
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McLaren’s Zak Brown gushes over Oscar Piastri, says he has been impressive
After last year’s abysmal sixth-spot finish beneath their rivals Alpine, McLaren’s condition seems even more disappointing now. Four races into 2023, the team only has 14 points to their name, but are in the 5th position above Alpine. Yet, the gap between Ferrari in P4 and McLaren in P5 is massive, and the team has quite a few things to be worried about.
Despite the results, McLaren Boss Zak Brown wants to focus on the bright side. Even though Piastri has only brought the team 4 points, Brown recognises his talent. Thus, Zak Brown said, “Oscar has been impressive since we’ve had him in the car. He’s very mature; he’s very focused; he’s very technical. Early indications are we’ve got a future world champion on our hands; [we] just need to work to get a faster car now. Oscar has done a fantastic job and he’s trading lap times with Lando now, and that’s what you want with your drivers.”
Now, no matter how many adjectives Zak Brown uses for Oscar Piastri, the results speak for themselves. Fans are not happy with McLaren’s current performance, and even Lando Norris has expressed his frustration. But, at the same time, Norris has said the new upgrades will make their car more competitive. So, it remains to be seen how well the papaya team performs in the upcoming Grands Prix and if they can close the gap of almost 40 points between them and the Scuderia Ferrari.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)