McLaren engineer Jonathan Beaumont has made a Lando Norris title prediction and has rated his F1 season out of 10 ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Norris currently sits second in the World Drivers’ Championship standings as the British star looks to follow in Lewis Hamilton’s footsteps and become a champion.
The 24-year-old has 241 points following impressive wins at the Miami Grand Prix and Dutch Grand Prix and is 62 points behind Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen.
There are eight races left this season for Norris to close the gap – starting with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix – which takes place this weekend.
Ahead of the action in Baku, Beaumont, Senior Vehicle Engineering Manager at McLaren Automotive, has rated Norris’ Formula One season out of 10 for 2024.
‘It’s going to be 10/10, easily!’ Beaumont, who has been working with McLaren for 11 years, told Metro.co.uk. ‘He’s done a great job.
‘He’s had a great season so far. For us, as a group company, it is really good to see the F1 team doing so well this year.
‘We’re not far behind in the Constructors Championship [either]. Hopefully we can continue to build on that.’
Quizzed if Norris could genuinely land the F1 title in a McLaren car, given they’ve not had a world champion since Hamilton in 2008, Beaumont added: ‘McLaren’s won many titles previously.
‘There is always a chance – and we would like to see it happen.’
Red Bull have dominated F1 in recent years, with Dutch racer Verstappen winning the last three World Drivers’ Championship titles in a row.
Before that was Hamilton’s period of dominance with Mercedes – and McLaren are now aiming to make their own mark – as Norris continues to shine in their car.
Senior figures at the British automotive manufacturer have been busy in recent weeks, teaming up with Lego to launch their brand new Technic McLaren P1 set.
Lego and McLaren have also revealed an impressive one-off, life-sized Lego version of the supercar – which Norris recently drove around the Silverstone circuit.
Lukas Horak, Lego’s Senior Project Manager in Model Production, said: ‘It was incredibly cool to see McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris driving the car we created.’
McLaren Automotive’s Test and Development Director Ben Gulliver added: ‘I hope that through this collaboration with the LEGO Group, we are able to inspire the next generation of designers and engineers to push the boundaries of automotive innovation.’
The LEGO Technic McLaren P1™ 1:8 set is available at www.LEGO.com/McLaren and LEGO Stores priced at £389.99.
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