Lando Norris has been warned by a fellow world champion of the 'gravitas' expectation the honour will bring to him at McLaren.
Norris enters 2026 as the reigning world champion following his success in the final race in 2025, and will be the first driver to win a title and then defend it for McLaren since Lewis Hamilton in 2008/2009.
Given the rarity of a driver becoming world champion, Norris is just the 35th in F1 history; their skills and knowledge are often valued above those of their non-world champion team-mate, with 1996 champion Damon Hill explaining how this 'gravitas' might not necessarily aid Norris.
"I think that the team have got faith in both," Hill explained on the Stay on Track podcast.
"But definitely, what happens when you are a world champion is that you have a little more cache.
"When I went from Williams [to Arrows], they were going: 'Oh my god, we've got a world champion in our team.'
"He must know something of value, but that gravitas is sometimes misplaced because I didn't know everything.
"I didn't know how to design the car, but I worked with people like Patrick Head and Adrian Newey, who knew where they were going and how to go about it.
"So leadership is a big part of that, and as a driver, you can instil that into the team as well."
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