General
McLaren not afraid of Norris leaving: 'Know there is some noise'
- GPblog.com
In early February last year, Lando Norris extended his contract at McLaren until the end of 2025. Before signing, the 23-year-old Brit spoke to several teams. Red Bull Racing was one of them. After all, Norris is keen to win and eventually take the world title. But will that happen at McLaren? Zak Brown does not fear his driver moving to another team.
Generational rivals Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have many Grand Prix victories to their name. Carlos Sainz and George Russell have also taken wins before, but Norris has to do the same. It causes some jealousy, because as he puts it himself: 'I'm not here to finish seventh every time'.
Yet Norris still has plenty of confidence in the direction McLaren are heading. He knows he won't be able to win in 2023 under normal circumstances, but between 2024 and 2025 he wants McLaren to be nestled among the top teams.
Brown on Norris' ambitions
Norris proved to be an excellent driver in the past two seasons by easily beating Daniel Ricciardo. Brown knows that McLaren needs to become more competitive if they want to retain Norris for the coming years. However, the American CEO knows it will. "I am sure. At the end of the day, he does want to win the world championship. So do we. We are on this journey together. I know there's some noise, but he knows what the game plan is."
He continued at Sky Sports: "For sure, we all want to be winning races and competing for the championship in the not too distant future. As long as we do that, I'm sure we will be racing together for a long time. We want to finish the story we started which is to come into F1 and win a world championship with us so we've got time."