Interview
Boullier has high expectations for Norris: "Could be an F1-champion in the future"
- GPblog.com
McLaren are seeing an upward trend in their results. Since 2019 they have been getting better and better and are constantly improving which has allowed them to get on the podium several times since 2019. Eric Boullier was the team boss of the British team between 2014 and 2018, so he is looking at the performance of his old employer with great joy.
In particular, Boullier is looking at the results of Lando Norris. The Brit was a test and reserve driver in McLaren's final year with Boullir and the Frenchman saw the potential in the young Brit even then. “You have to see what he did in the junior categories to understand that he is F1-material," Boullier explained in a conversation with GPblog.
Norris future world champion?
"I guess you can only see in F1 how they mature and then you can see if they are World Champion-material which is different," Boullier saw that Norris had that in him. "Norris won everything below F1 and is developing very well compared to Ricciardo," he said.
"Not only on a single lap but also in the races, on tyre management. He is developing very well and could be an F1-champion in the future, just like Max." At McLaren, they were the third-ranked team in 2020 and this season they seem to be fighting for the 'best of the rest' title with Ferrari.
Boullier hopes that McLaren can come out on top in that battle. “You can see that McLaren over the last three or four years have clearly improved step by step and that’s paying off now." Although with the current regulations a world title seems far away, Boullier expects the team from Woking to be able to make a leap in 2022.
Developing McLaren further
"Because that would be very nice for McLaren and the sport, but there are many factors, first of all the budget cap which might change the way big teams will be working and we hope that the new regulations will give credit to the one on merit, not on resources," he added.
Boullier stated earlier that he doesn't expect the 2022 regulations to change the entire grid, but that the necessary changes will take place in the current rankings. He hopes that the first steps will create more equality between teams. "We’ll see, hopefully in the future, everybody can fight for the championship," Boullier concluded.