It will come as no surprise that the same Lando Norris who was photographed beneath his car at the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, helping to strip and clean it, has grown into the team's senior driver and a star of the Formula 1 grid.

With rookie Oscar Piastri joining for the 2023 campaign, Lando will become the team's most experienced racer, the duo becoming the youngest driver pairing on the 2023 grid, and CEO Zak Brown believes that Lando has shown himself ready for the increased responsibility.

"He's just getting better and better," Zak said. "We feel that Lando has a lot of experience and that we now have a great blend of experience and youth – it just so happens that our experience is also youth.

"We sit here very excited with the potential of our driver line-up of Lando and Oscar for the foreseeable future. If I look at when Lando started, versus now, he's got a very high level of confidence but not arrogance, and he's definitely at one with the team in the racing car."

Since his sensational rookie season in 2019, Lando has gone on to score six podiums and one pole, but it's in his consistency where he has impressed the most.

Taking points in all 10 of the final races in 2021, Lando added a further 17 top 10 finishes to his name in 2022, ending the season as the only driver outside of the top three teams to score a podium.

The 23-year-old is a regular presence at the McLaren Technology Centre, and at private tests, with his work in the MCL35M, on the simulator and in debriefs playing a key role in the development of the car.

For all of the plaudits, Zak still believes that the 23-year-old is underrated, saying: "I don't think he gets enough credit for how awesome he can be when it's time to set a lap.

"It comes to Q3, and you just think, 'wow, where'd that come from?' And he does that often. He makes very few mistakes, and rarely makes a big mistake. He puts together unbelievable qualifying laps. And I think that, if I look at season one to now, his race craft is exponentially better."

Lando himself has regularly reaffirmed his commitment to the project at McLaren, and discussed his confidence in the team in an interview with F1TV at the end of the 2022 season.

“It’s just faith," he said. “I like people being honest. I have faith in McLaren, I have faith in the guys I work with, the whole team."

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