Former System 1 race engineer Rob Smedley has praised Lando Norris’s psychological power, dubbing the McLaren driver “the actual deal”.
Throughout an episode of the Excessive Efficiency Racing podcast, Smedley mentioned the general public notion of the 2025 champion following the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Regardless of a 10-place grid penalty, Norris confirmed sturdy tempo all through the race.
Whereas he completed the Belgian Grand Prix in seventh, the Briton went on to safe his first grand prix victory of the season in Hungary.
“Whenever you wander across the paddock, and also you chat to folks, I believe that he will get a little bit of a nasty rap. It is at all times like, ‘Oh, Lando had this superb junior profession and due to this fact…’ and he did. Wonderful when it comes to how well-funded his junior profession was. I believe he had every little thing. However he nonetheless arrived right here now, and he nonetheless has to do the enterprise,” Smedley defined.
“There are many drivers who’ve had extra money spent on their junior profession than Lando Norris and have not been capable of ship in System 1.”
Smedley added that he doesn’t assume the criticism comes from followers, arguing that it as an alternative comes from folks “on the periphery” who are usually not staff insiders.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Picture by: Andy Hone/ LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
“I believe staff insiders who understand how arduous this sport is and know what Lando Norris does on a week-to-week foundation, I do not assume anybody has something however reward,” he continued.
“The man is tremendous quick, and now he is tremendous constant as effectively. And really, I believe that for all he p***es about and does his Twitch or no matter it is known as and his social media stuff, and he is a little bit of a personality, he is robust.
“He has quite a lot of psychological resilience, and we noticed that final 12 months. He’s very, very robust. So no matter his upbringing, no matter Adam, his dad, has accomplished for him and all the remainder of it, overlook all of that. The child’s the actual deal. He is very, very resilient.”
Following his victory on the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris sits fifth within the drivers’ championship with 128 factors, 10 factors behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth and 19 factors forward of Max Verstappen in sixth.
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