McLaren’s Lando Norris is to participate in four or five more practice sessions at Grands Prix this year as part of his preparation for 2019.
Norris joined McLaren’s young driver programme at the start of last year and stepped up to the role of reserve for 2018, having also moved into Formula 2 off the back of a title-winning Formula 3 campaign.
Norris tested in both Spain and Hungary and was handed FP1 outings in Belgium and Italy as part of his development role, allowing McLaren to undertake further assessments.
McLaren revealed on Monday that Norris will step up to a race seat in 2019 as a replacement for Stoffel Vandoorne, joining current Renault driver Carlos Sainz Jr. at the Woking-based squad.
The British youngster is set for more FP1 runs this year but McLaren is keen to avoid a repeat of situations in Belgium and Italy, where Norris had to quickly rush off to his Formula 2 duties, due to the short turnaround time between the respective sessions.
“We’ll put him in for another four or five Free Practice 1s,” McLaren team boss Zak Brown confirmed on Tuesday.
“I think we’ll try and keep him away from some of the Formula 2 weekends.
“The ‘Hurry up, get out of there in FP1 and go and run to Formula 2’ I don’t think has done him any favours the last few races. You only have to be off by that much [small] to be off by that much [big].
“I think that while the Free Practice 1s have been really good for us, he’s made the comment to me that he actually feels more comfortable in the Formula 1 car now than in the Formula 2.
“We’d like to see him win the Formula 2 championship, which he’s still got a chance at. But he’s got to hustle.”
Formula 2 will join Formula 1 at Grands Prix in Russia and Abu Dhabi, leaving Japan, United States, Mexico and Brazil as probable venues for Norris’ further FP1 runs. Norris is not slated to be present in Singapore.
Norris will be back in the MCL33 this week for the wet tyre test in France.
