Youth and risk, or maturity and proven track record? Lando Norris, or Fernando Alonso? For CEO Zak Brown, youth gets his nod every time these days. 
 
“I think now I've got the perfect blend of youth and experience in Lando,” he says immediately. “He's now five seasons in, and then of course, there’s Oscar Piastri. So, I think I'm fortunate that we've got two young guns, but one is actually pretty experienced now.” 
 
Indeed, it’s impressive when you think just how long Lando has been in F1, given that he’s still only 23. So how has he developed since they first met? 
 
“He’s awesome,” Zak continues. “So, with his race craft, his consistency, his feedback and now his leadership and decisiveness, he's a very experienced Formula 1 driver now. I see understandably in Oscar and other young drivers, there’s lots of questions from the team. When you ask him about a tyre decision or something, there's more of a conversation of, ‘Well, what do you guys think?’ Which is where Lando started, where any rookie starts. 

“But now, when you listen to Lando on the radio, it’s ‘I want these tyres. I want to pit now.’ There's just a decisiveness that comes with the experience and confidence he has to make the call. The younger drivers don't have that experience yet, so it tends to be a little bit more, ‘Here’s what I think, but what do you think?’  

“That's definitely the way to do it because I think you can only do that once you have enough experience and confidence. When you've been there before. That’s where Lando has really grown. He's grabbed that experience and is now more confident in what he wants out of the car, out of a weekend and out of a strategy. 
 
“And he’s spectacular in the wet, which is always a good sign. I don't think anyone has any doubts over his natural ability. And I think the thing that's most impressive about him is how few mistakes he makes. He’s always been in control and his mistakes are missing the occasional sector, locking a brake every once in a while. He almost never crashes. He's had two, three shunts in five years. 

“Remember Spa in 2021? The weather was horrific, but if you recall he was quickest in Q1 and Q2. He was flying. Pouring rain, no one should have gone out. Then he crashed in Q3, so that was one. And he took off a front wing in Hungary in practice. Then he's had the occasional front wing endplate from clipping something. That's it. His car's not come back on the tow truck other than, I think, twice in five years. That's the part I'm most impressed about, he doesn’t crash, and how awesome he is in qualifying. When goes for it, if he makes a mistake, he recovers from it. His consistency is awesome. 
 
“I love his experience, his maturity, his pace, his leadership. He could definitely win a World Championship right now.” 

And the fact that Oscar has already shown so well against him confirms that McLaren really does have two very strong prospects. 

“Yeah, we’re on the money with that choice. With Oscar there are a couple of things that have been uber-impressive. His patience and his confidence. He's very quiet and on a Friday he's learning. Some of the circuits are new, but the gap is getting smaller and smaller. He was half a second off Lando in Monaco on Friday and said to me, ‘You can't really explore the limits here because if you do you're in the wall.’ But he's just chilled, and an unbelievable student.

“He can look at Lando's data, and then come Saturday he’s a tenth off him in qualifying. So, he's got a great ability to learn on Friday, he’s not too eager to look at the lap times and fall into an 'I-got-to-win-Friday' mentality. Okay, Lando has outqualified him nine to two, but from Silverstone he's on the same tenth. He's able to do that by not making mistakes on Friday, not putting the car in the gravel. He studies and then he is fast through the fast stuff. So what we're seeing in him is a very mature, very patient, very studious, big balls driver. 

"I have every reason to believe he's a future World Champion with what we're seeing right now. And he's only getting better, right? I mean, look at him in Silverstone, at Spa. He's kind of doing what Lando did his rookie year: he might not quite get the whole lap together or he’ll nail his three sectors but be a little bit untidy, just typical rookie stuff. But he's not sticking it in the fence. So, I see a lot in Oscar of what I saw in Lando in his year one. 

“I think Lando now feels like he probably has another Lando as a team-mate and it's going to push them both but in a very healthy way. They get along great. It's a different relationship than Carlos [Sainz] and Lando: they went out and golfed all the time. I would say the Lando-Oscar relationship is a little bit more all business. They've formed a great relationship though, and when they’ve raced each other hard already a couple of times this year they've both played ball.' 

“I think we've got the best driver line-up for the foreseeable future because of the blend of experience, plus both have youth and both definitely seem like they're future champions. And while it’s going to be tight between us, Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin, I think we can put up a good fight over the balance of the year and I expect Oscar to be with Lando from here on.”