Formula 1 team signs 22-year-old driver to deal through 2025.
- On Wednesday, McLaren announced that its partnership with Lando Norris will continue through at least the 2025 season.
- Norris’ relationship with McLaren stretches back to 2017.
- The McLaren-Norris deal is the first team-driver deal to extend into 2025.
McLaren Racing and Lando Norris are in it for the long haul.
On Wednesday, the Formula 1 team announced their partnership will continue through at least the 2025 season. There are no opt-out provisions in the deal. The McLaren-Norris deal is the first team-driver deal to extend into 2025, surpassing the Charles Leclerc-Ferrari and Esteban Ocon-Alpine contracts that expire after 2024.
Norris’ relationship with McLaren stretches back to 2017. Then aged 17, he was recruited to its young driver scheme, and had his first F1 test as part of a group in-season session in Hungary. Norris impressed McLaren from the outset, quickly snapped up the role of reserve driver, and by mid-2018 had convinced senior management that he was ready for his shot at the big time in 2019.
Norris’ growth has coincided with McLaren’s ongoing recovery from its lowest ebb. Norris finished 11th in 2019, ninth in 2020—including a first podium—and sixth in 2021. Last season, he was one of Formula 1’s most impressive performers, scoring four podiums and his first career pole position, controlling the race in Russia until rain intervened. He comfortably outperformed experienced teammate Daniel Ricciardo last year, as well.
Both parties have now made a big commitment: McLaren in Norris’ ability to continue developing and drive its charge forward, and Norris in McLaren’s ability to provide him the machinery he needs to do so, before the new-for-2022 cars even hit the track. Norris gets rewarded with improved terms while McLaren gets one of Formula 1’s brightest and most talented youngsters.
“If you look at the overall plan we have in place here, the journey we are in, we know that despite the good steps we made in previous years, we still have big next steps to make,” said team principal Andreas Seidl. “In order to get to this position we are targeting, in order to fight for race wins every race weekend, having Lando with us, and having this consistency and continuity also in the driver line-up will be an absolute key in order to achieve these targets. It was very important for us to lock in Lando until the end of 2025.”
Norris, 22, a British-Belgian who has spent much of the winter moving to a new flat in Monaco “with a nice view and everything,” has been back at McLaren’s Technology Center this week, undertaking simulator duties, and preparing for the presentation of its new car for 2022 on Feb. 11.
“A big part of my career and life I guess is ticked off to stay in F1 for another four years—it’s pretty amazing from my side,” said Norris. “We know there are some things we need to improve on and make better before we have the ability to guarantee and a chance to fight for wins and championships, but I know that is coming up. It’s in the pipeline in the future for us all, and that’s what I’m confident we can look forward to.”
The development comes just nine months after McLaren reconfirmed Norris on a multi-year deal, so why the extended contract so soon?
“This is more for the solidarity of me and the team and just to really put the confidence in both of us for the long-term,” said Norris, whose growing status was displayed by him presenting an award at the BRITs music ceremony on Tuesday evening in London. “I see that as a benefit, one for myself: to have this longer contract and stay here for a while, and one for the team, I do see it as a performance benefit and motivation benefit for the mechanics, for the engineers and everyone in MTC.”
Lando Norris scored his first career pole at Sochi, Russia, in 2021.
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Part of the long-term agreement was also prompted by the desire to ward off potential suitors. Norris concedes that there were “little chats” with rival teams over his future, but that nothing ever moved beyond pleasantries.
“I looked at all the best options for me and what I think is what I can be most successful and what I think I can achieve the best (results), but also what I believe is the best for me as a driver, the best for me as a person and in the longer term what is the best thing for me,” said Norris.
“Of course, there will be opportunities for other drivers I am sure and maybe [to] go to Red Bull or Mercedes, who knows if I would have had those opportunities? I think the fact that it’s known or the fact I could have those opportunities, but I still chose to stay with McLaren, is the good thing about all of this. I know those opportunities, or I am confident that those opportunities [with other teams], would arise in the next few years but the fact is I still have chosen to commit to McLaren.
“I think that’s quite a strong message, it’s quite a strong thing that this is still where I want to be, it’s where I want to achieve race wins and podiums and championships.”
Keyword: Why McLaren F1 Just Signed Lando Norris to the Longest Current F1 Contract