One of my favorite things about motorsports is that you can have drivers from one series move into another and try their hand at it, which gives you a good measure of their raw driving ability.
Of course, one of the big races on any driver’s CV is the Indianapolis 500, and McLaren driver and reigning Formula 1 world champ Lando Norris is talking about whether or not he’d ever want to take part in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Norris traveled from Montreal down to Indianapolis on Memorial Day, where he congratulated former Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver and Indy 500 champ Felix Rosenqvist.
He also took some time to do an interview for Fox Sports’ “Speed with Harvick and Buxton”, where he talked about whether or not he’d ever want to take part in the race.
FELIX ROSENQVIST WINS 110TH INDIANAPOLIS 500 AFTER THRILLING RACE
“If you’re doing a (full-season) championship, it feels more natural; you just going out to do (the Indy 500),” Norris said. “To kind of just go in for one thing, (you have to be) a little bit crazy to just want to go out and do that.”
It’s no secret that the big stumbling block for a lot of European drivers is the oval. It’s easy to see why going 230 mph around with zero run-off area would be nerve-wracking. Especially if you didn’t have previous IndyCar experience (but, hey, that’s what the entire month of May leading up to the race is for, right?).
It does, however, seem like Norris has at least thought about what it would be like to race at Indy, because he talked to Rosenqvist.
“I think it was Felix who said when you’re on-track, you’re not thinking ‘Are the walls here, and this is there, and you’re going 220 (mph);’ whatever it is, your adrenaline has taken over so much.”
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That sounds like something Rosenqvist would say. He demonstrated it on the final lap of the 500.
As Kevin Harvick noted, there may come a time when Norris will consider the Indy 500 a box to check, and if he wants to do that while still part of the McLaren stable, that shouldn’t be a problem.
I can’t imagine CEO Zak Brown would put up much of an argument with adding a car for Norris, provided it doesn’t clash with his F1 schedule (which, it normally does).
The last F1 champ to compete in the Indianapolis 500 was Fernando Alonso, who raced in 2017 and 2020. He attempted, but failed to qualify for the race in 2019 as well.
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