Like fellow young Formule One tyros Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen before him, Lando Norris' youthful exhuberance has lit up the sport in his debut season.
But while those two drivers can sometimes lack in genuine likeability factor, Bristol's own superstar-in-waiting proved he has the personality to match his driving excellence as he marked his sixth-placed finish at the Austria Grand Prix by declaring it "fun".
Norris matched his F1 best performance to date for McLaren having started the race fifth on the grid and once again impressed with his pace but also consistency in performance.
The 19-year-old now has 22 championship points and lies eighth in the drivers' standings with the British Grand Prix up next and a chance to showcase his skills to his growing legion of home fans.
"It was a fun race! A good start, managed to go forwards and battled the Mercedes and the Ferrari for a lap or so, but had to concede those positions and think of my own race," Norris said.
"The Alfa got past me on the first lap, around the outside at Turn Four. Not much I could’ve done and dropped back to fourth and then fifth, then had Max (Verstappen) behind me for a little bit, so I was in there.
"I saved my tyres for the first few laps, had it under control then pushed and did what I needed to do, pulled a gap, boxed, and managed the pace from then on.
“I was on the Medium, so was a little bit unsure about what we could do, or what the tyres would do towards the end of the stint. (Pierre) Gasly was pushing me for the last few laps, but I was just doing what I had to do in terms of saving the tyres and not taking any risks – there was a lot more in it if I really needed to push.
"A massive thanks to the McLaren team at the circuit and back at the factory. Looking forward to my home race now!”
Early on at the Red Bull Ring, Norris even got past Verstappen and Hamilton to take P3 for a brief period but the Red Bull and Mercedes recovered to push the 19-year-old back into sixth.
Verstappen went on to win what proved a thrilling race, passing Ferrari's Charles Leclerc with two laps remaining in an incident which took race stewards three hours to review before finally awarding the victory to the Dutchman.
For Norris, though, he goes to Silverstone on the weekend of July 13/14 with confidence high both within himself and McLaren as a team with Carlos Sainz claiming an impressive eighth in Austria.
