Lando's the next Lewis Hamilton ... he's fast and smart on the track

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ZAK BROWN

- Matt Majendie

ZAK BROWN is finally seeing light at the end of a tunnel - in the case of the McLaren boss the gargantuan wind tunnel being built at the team's Woking headquarters.

It is a sizeable piece of the jigsaw aimed at turning one of Formula One's most iconic teams into a championship contender once more.

For all the initial hype about their winter testing pace and conjecture from their rivals, the team's CEO is adamant that will not be this season – but gone, too, are the years of languishing between sixth and ninth in the constructors' championship as they did from 2015 to 2018.

The man anointed as the chosen one to bring a first drivers' title for the team since Lewis Hamilton is Lando Norris, a driver Brown believes is Hamiltonesque. Norris has had just two race crashes in his three F1 seasons, the most recent at last year's Hungarian Grand Prix, after being driven into by Valtteri Bottas.

Brown said of the British driver: “I always thought he's a world champion in the making. He's as fast as anyone and he rarely makes mistakes. He doesn't make big mistakes.

"Take Lewis, he is extremely smart. Look at how Lewis raced in Saudi. That was such a highly intelligent drive, forget about the speed. He avoided three or four accidents with a damaged car. That was his experience and intelligence and not getting emotional in the race car.