Zak Brown believes Lando Norris is ready to make the jump into Formula 1, but says the plan is to give the talented Briton a year in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2018 rather than loan him to a rival F1 team.
Norris currently leads the FIA European Formula 3 Championship standings as the season nears its end, but Brown, the executive director of the McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team, feels a year in Formula 2, potentially with Prema Racing, would be beneficial for their junior driver.
Brown feels it would be at Norris’ best interests not to rush his promotion into the upper echelons of motorsport, and although he seems destined to be a Formula 1 star of the future – he made his test debut with McLaren at the Hungaroring at the beginning of August – the seventeen year old looks set to race in F1’s main feeder series next year.
“No [F1] team has made a request,” said Brown. “Our current plan is to put him in Formula 2. I certainly think he’s fast enough to be in Formula 1, but you also need to make sure not to rush things and give him enough experience.
“He’s definitely our star of the future and I don’t think we’d put him in another Formula 1 team at this point.”
