Brown: McLaren must give Norris the equipment to show his talent

Instead, Brown pointed out that it up to McLaren to deliver for the young driver, something they have failed with previous drivers - Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne spring to mind as drivers with huge potential before stepping up to F1 with McLaren and watch their careers implode.

One obvious exception was Lewis Hamilton, as a rookie with McLaren in 2007 he had a stellar season and might have won the F1 World Championship on his first attempt had an all-out civil war not erupted when the Briton clashed famously with Fernando Alonso.

Brown acknowledged in an interview with Racer, “Obviously Lewis came into McLaren but we were winning races at that point. So I think there’s certainly been rookie drivers that have come into teams in high-pressure environments."

"Whether that was pressure to continue to deliver because the team’s already winning races or pressure to help us on the journey of recovery. I think it’s first and foremost the responsibility of McLaren to get us back to our winning ways.”

Brown is a man of many hats, apart from McLaren team boss he also runs his own United Autosports racing team, is part of Norris' management team and 'moonlights' as chairman of Motorsport Network.

One could never imagine Ron Dennis - the man responsible for McLaren's huge success since the late seventies - putting the onus on his team to deliver for drivers. In fact, the opposite was expected: You come to McLaren to deliver or you are out.

The fact that Brown will give Norris time to adapt suggest he is wearing his "I Manage Lando" hat as opposed to his "McLaren is Boss" cap.

Vandoorne is the latest 'hot property' that bombed at McLaren for a bunch of different reasons, and although he did not deliver relative to his teammate Alonso, it can hardly be said the Belgian was given a fair run.

In the wake of the disastrous car that McLaren built for him to drive, you would think that if the same ethos that they will apply to Norris had been practised with Vandoorne, then the 26-year-old 2015 GP2 Series Champion would not be plying his trade in Formula E but rather be given a final crack at the top flight.

Vandoorne was always on a road to a hiding with Alonso, but with Carlos Sainz as a teammate things might have been different, but we will never know.

By all accounts, Norris had a long-standing option with the Woking outfit to be on the grid with them in 2019, anything less would make him a free agent, which clearly Brown (wearing his I Manage Lando hat) did not feel was good business. Thus Vandoorne became excess baggage and ejected accordingly.

Brown continued, “I do think Formula 1 can be a pretty cruel environment. If you look at Leclerc, I remember there was commentary I think after the first two or three races of whether he should still be in Formula 1. And now he’s driving for Ferrari.

"So I think what we need to do is manage expectations, not after three races pass judgment — which we as a sport are always pretty quick to do.

“[Norris] clearly is extremely talented. We’ve seen him in our race car a good amount now and what we need to do is nurture him, manage expectations internally and externally, and give him the equipment to show his talent,” confirmed Brown.

Time will tell if Norris is the real deal, for now he ticks all the boxes, but then so did Perez, Magnussen and Vandoorne ahead of their time with the McLaren and we all know how that turned out...

But one thing neither of the trio had, namely a McLaren boss with a vested interest in making sure they succeed - as Dennis had with Hamilton and now as Brown has with his young charge - and that is sure to make a big difference in how things pan out for Norris.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/09/05/mclaren-we-dont-want-to-compare-norris-to-hamilton/