McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris has joined the Supercars All Stars Eseries roster for the Spa-Francorchamps round.
Norris is the latest guest star to enter a round of the Australian championship’s iRacing-based virtual competition, following in the footsteps of IndyCar frontunners Will Power and Alexander Rossi, NASCAR’s Joey Logano and fellow F1 driver Max Verstappen.
Norris will pilot a Holden ZB Commodore for Walkinshaw Andretti United, an outfit part-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
“I’m super excited to announce I will be joining the Supercars grid in Spa this week. There’s a lot of very fast drivers in it, it’s going to be very tough, very competitive,” Norris said.
“But I’ve watched pretty much all the races so far in the championship, and it looks a lot of fun.”
Norris is an avid simracer and has been among the pro drivers particularly active in virtual competition during the current coronavirus outbreak and the disruption it’s caused to real-life motorsport.
It’s not the McLaren’s driver first crossover event, as he has competed in the two latest IndyCar iRacing Challenge events, winning at COTA and then getting controversially taken out in the final stretch of the Indianapolis oval race while leading.
A month ago, drove a Supercars Holden during the Watkins Glen round of Team Redline’s ‘Real Racers Never Quit’ pro driver series, finishing fourth in both of the two races.
The Spa-Francorchamps round of the virtual Supercars series will take place on Wednesday and span three races. It will be broadcast on Supercars’ Twitch channel and elsewhere, starting at 9am GMT.
The series was originally due to race at the Nurburgring as well as Spa for its fifth round, but decided to focus wholly on the Belgian venue due to its ‘Supercars-friendly layout’.
Red Bull F1 driver Verstappen has been the most successful of the guest stars so far, scoring three podiums during his appearance.
