Lando Norris has the "personality of a champion" and his victory in the Miami GP is likely to be the first of many in the years to come, according to the Sky Sports F1 pundits
Norris' long wait for a maiden triumph at motorsport's top level is finally over after 15 winless podium appearances and several near-misses in his 109 race starts before Sunday's impressive breakthrough success.
The 24-year-old, who joined the grid with McLaren after a stratospheric junior career in 2019, has long been recognised as one of F1's brightest stars and a likely world champion of the future, with the team consistently underling their faith in him by locking him down to successive multi-year deals to ward off potential suitors such as Red Bull.
"He just has the personality of a champion," said Sky Sports F1's Danica Patrick, a race winner herself in IndyCar, after the affable Norris became the 114th driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
"So much talent. He has confidence. He is fast. He is funny. He has a great personality.
"I feel like for a while now it's been like 'someday he's going to win a championship' and it's very, very cool to see him win his first race.
"I'm sure it feels so sweet too with how many high points, and lows, he's had in the last couple of races."
Norris' first win at the 110th attempt in F1 was just three fewer races than it took Jenson Button to climb the podium's top step, at the 2006 Hungarian GP.
Button went on to win 15 grands prix and the 2009 world title before joining Sky Sports.
"Very proud of him," said Button, who was McLaren's reserve driver when Norris joined the Woking outfit's young driver programme aged 17 in 2017.
"It has been a long time coming. It feels like forever when you are in the sport and you haven't won a race.
"He's had a couple of opportunities, it hasn't gone his way, so it's lovely to see him on the top step.
"That memory sticks with you forever. You still need the car to perform and get that result again. For me it took three years [between first and second win], hopefully it won't take him that long to win his second race.
"But it doesn't change the way he's going to go racing. He's a confident driver, he's very skilled and he's a team player. So I expect to see them winning more over the years to come and I just hope it's sooner rather than later so we can have this fight between Red Bull and McLaren, which would be amazing."
Patrick agreed that, while clearly a significant moment in his career, Norris was already clearly on an upward trajectory.
"Sometimes you learn how to win," she added. "You have the right mentality for it and everyone starts picturing and seeing you that way, which has its own momentum and energy.
"But I'm not sure it really changes a whole lot because we all saw this coming. He's almost won many times and everyone believes we are going to see him win so many more, and eventually a championship.
"So this is the beginning of something really fun."
