Max Verstappen has dominated the 2023 F1 season with 19 wins in a single season and in doing so, he raised the bar for the rest of the grid to compete. However, many other drivers including rookie Oscar Piastri showed good prowess in 2023. Now, Piastri’s “fairy godfather” Mark Webber has come up to share one driver who has it in him in Formula 1.
Admittedly, Webber is the mentor of Piastri. Both belonging from Australia, things got easier between them as the former Red Bull driver also manages the McLaren driver’s career. However, when given a choice to point out the driver to look out for, the 47-year-old had a fine choice indeed!
Notably, Webber was asked to keep both Verstappen and Piastri out of the equation and then reveal his choice. The Australian driver picked up Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris during a conversation with Channel 4 Sport.
Speaking about Norris, he stated, “I think Lando has driven very very well. He has been very very consistent, struck off a lot of new things in terms of you know like podium consistencies, different tracks. He’s done 100 Grand Prixs now. He’s well into his Formula 1 career.”
Zak Brown on Lando Norris and his partnership with Oscar Piastri
McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown is a lucky man to have got both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on his team that too at such a young age. Both Norris and Piastri come with huge experience and maturity compared to their age.
On this, Brown said in a report published by SBNation, “Best driver lineup of the grid when you look at a combination of experience, age, talent. I think clearly Lewis [Hamilton] and George [Russell] are awesome. But Lewis is, you know, towards the near of his career as opposed to the start.”
Then, speaking about Norris, he added, “First, he’s obviously naturally very fast and very talented. He’s very mature, very precise. He’s got all the natural talent in the world and then the patience, maturity, aggressiveness, technical ability, and is great in the team environment to get the most out of the team.”
On the other hand, Piastri’s addition to the team has given them further impetus as the rookie has excelled brilliantly.
He also received his second Rookie of the Year award from the FIA this season and gave out one of the best performances as a rookie since Lewis Hamilton’s debut in 2007 with McLaren.
