Startling Lando Norris admission increases pressure on McLaren resurgence plans

Michelle Foster 06 Jul 2023 8:15 AM

Lando Norris speaks to Channel 4. Australia April 2023.

With rumours linking him to Red Bull and Alpine, Lando Norris has warned McLaren he doesn’t want to spend another five seasons just fighting for points and the occasional podium.

One of the young Britons billed as a potential future World Champion when he arrived on the Formula 1 grid, Norris has yet to show the world what he can do given McLaren’s perpetual struggles.

那些继续本赛季的沃金team scoring just 17 points in the first eight races, prompting a major redesign of the MCL60 under the leadership of new team boss Andrea Stella.

Lando Norris in hungry for more

With the team boss declaring that they are “pretty much redesigning aerodynamics and also some of the parts under the bodywork”, Norris debuted the revised car at the Austrian Grand Prix where he recorded a season’s best result of P4.

But unless McLaren make further improvements in the races to come, Norris could start looking around at his options for the 2026 season.

That’s the year he’ll be out of contract with McLaren with the driver already linked to Red Bull, alongside Max Verstappen, while Alpine have also been suggested as a possible destination.

But wherever he goes, or even if it he stays, Norris insists his future will be determined by his chances of winning a World title with said team.

“This has been my toughest season,” he conceded to Press Association.

“I have been on the rise and felt that glory and the podiums and then it drops off to the worst it has been for me. I want to win so much, but at the same time, it feels so far away. Everyone puts in the effort, and when I am not close to fighting for points, it takes a lot out of me.

“I don’t get anything out of it and it hurts. And when I think I have been in F1 for five seasons, I feel like ‘damn’.

“Five years have gone by so quickly and before I know it I will have been here for 10. I don’t want to be in this position then.”

The driver warned McLaren he’s keeping one eye on the market with rumours linking him to Red Bull.

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“You always monitor things,” he said. “Every driver on the grid does. And I do think sometimes, ‘What would happen if I was in this position or that position?’

“But I am not the guy who wastes time thinking about it, or wishing for something else. I have kind of got to a point where I am just very happy to keep my head down.

“When the time comes and something happens then something happens, but I don’t get carried away with any of that, as much as I daydream about things in life like everyone does.”