Alonso Impressed with McLaren Junior Lando Norris

At the Daytona 24 Hours race last weekend, Fernando Alonso was full of praise for McLaren Formula 1 junior Lando Norris.  Alonso, Norris and Phil Hanson pilot the United Autosports-run Ligier JSP217. Unfortunately, multiple brake issues and a throttle failure resulted in 38th position overall and 91 laps off the lead. Despite the Ligier’s poor pace, the car was running as high as sixth. A “scary” brake failure for Alonso, put paid to their chances.

The main reason why Ligier was running that high was mostly due to Norris’s work behind the wheel. The British driver gained a number of positions in the opening stages of the race. A rain shower also worked in Ligier’s favour and helped them stay competitive during the race.

Alonso said, “Really it’s not a surprise, but [for] the people who don’t know Lando, maybe it was a surprise for them. The stints he did were very impressive – the teamwork, the preparation, the focus. At night when we switched to wet tyres we were fifth, one minute behind the leader, and then we switched to slick tyres again in damp conditions, with Lando driving, and we were 27 seconds behind the leaders.” So even in wet conditions, [on his] first time in a prototype car, at Daytona, on Continental tyres, he recovered 33 seconds in 20 laps, something like that. He is 18 years old, so that’s quite impressive.”

The team also had a taste of leading a race, where they led a total of eight laps. Norris was leading when he pitted and Hanson took over in the eighth hour. Norris said “I didn’t know what position I was in, it was only when I came into the pits I saw I was P1. On my final lap before I boxed, I overtook my team-mate [the #32 Ligier], who I thought was my ahead of me, and I could swear he had the [number] eight [on the digital readout that shows current position] on the car.”

“But when I entered the pits, I saw I was P1. Our pace in the whole race was pretty good in terms of our disadvantage of actual pace in the car. Compared to the Cadillacs and the Acuras, they were miles better in terms of performance. But me, Phil and Fernando did a great job extracting what we could from the car. I think we have to be proud of what we achieved as drivers and of the team; the failures are just things that sometimes happen.”