Sainz deserves his Ferrari chance, says Norris

2020 F1 season

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Carlos Sainz Jnr’s performance last year shows he deserves his promotion to Ferrari next season, his McLaren team mate Lando Norris has said.

The pair will spend a second season together this year before Sainz moves to Ferrari where he will replace Sebastian Vettel. Norris said he was “very happy” to see his team mate get the chance.

“Someone was going to replace [Vettel] and whoever it was, it was going to be a bit of a surprise because I didn’t think there was going to be any of the other drivers in the top three teams moving around at all.

“I knew it was obviously going to have to be someone, and I knew at that point that Carlos was going to be on the radar. I’m still with McLaren, so very happy with where I was. He was one of the guys which I knew could have a chance. But at the same time, when someone gets announced, there’s always a few days or a week prior that things kind of start off and you don’t know about them at the time.

“So I’m very happy for him. I think he deserved it, he drove very well last year. We still have a lot of driving and fun to go on this year. We’re still going to be team mates, we’re still working together, we’re still trying to get McLaren back to back to the front and doing as well as possible. So I still look forward to the times we have together. But I wish him all the best in the future.”

Daniel Ricciardo will take Sainz’s place alongside next year, though Norris admitted he doesn’t know the Renault driver very well.

“I only know the guy from talking with him sometimes and being in the press conference with him and seeing interviews, I don’t know him personally that well. So it’s hard to know what he does.

“Obviously he’s got different attributes, different characteristics to what Carlos has. He’s just a different driver: I worked with a lot of different drivers over the years but at the same time, every driver has different things that they’re really good at and things they’re not so good at.

“So it’s, from my side, just understanding what their strengths are and what the weaknesses are that he has too, obviously exploiting them in some ways, but also learning from those strengths.”

2020 F1 season

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2 comments on “Sainz deserves his Ferrari chance, says Norris”

  1. I really like Norris, he seems very genuine and open. On another note I notice how many people seem to say how much they hate the Black lives matter articles and “post about racing”. And yet here we are. A day old article, the perfect opportunity to discuss Sainz, Ric and Norris and yet the anti anti racism folk are still more busy there than track related news.

    1. I really want to see Norris and McLaren keep improving together. Love Norris’ attitude and he’s definitely quick.

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