Lando Norris has been banging on the F1 door for quite sometime now and McLaren have now offered him his first chance at a Free practice drive.
Norris will be driving instead of Alonso at FP1 in Spa this weekend.
Norris is currently racing in F2 and McLaren need to assess if he is good enough to take the leap from F2 to F1 next year.
Carlos Sainz has already secured his McLaren seat for next year after Fernando Alonso announced his retirement from the sport.
The FP1 session at Spa would be extremely crucial for both Norris and Vandoorne, as it could be a direct shoot out between the duo for who gets to partner Sainz at McLaren from next year.
“This is not only part of his ongoing development, but also the evaluation and performance evolution of the car,” said the McLaren sporting director.
“We’ll be taking a strategic view race-by-race at where else this might be beneficial for us over the coming grands prix.
“Spa-Francorchamps has a well-deserved reputation as a racers’ circuit due to its historic significance and popularity among the drivers.” he added.
Ocon also has an outside chance of making it to McLaren next year, as his Force India future is almost doomed.
Lance Stroll would be joining Force India sooner or later and Perez is set to renew his contract with Force India, after playing a massive role in saving the team.
Ocon thus finds himself in a tough spot, but has an outside chance to land the McLaren seat if Norris needs some more development before entering F1 and Vandoorne isn’t considered good enough.
