McLaren experienced a nightmare start to the new era of Formula 1, as major regulation changes forced teams to rethink the way they design their cars, and they finished towards the back of the grid in Bahrain.
Towards the end of the 2021 season McLaren began to look like a team on the up, with the team picking up a shock one-two in Monza amongst a number of other podiums being secured by Lando Norris.
The young Brit has blown his teammate Daniel Ricciardo out of the water this season, which was seen the Australian axed by McLaren ahead of the 2023 season and Norris’ stock rise.
The 23-year-old has been tipped as a future world champion, and after recently revealing that he has held talks with Red Bull before every contract renewal decision at McLaren, Norris has said McLaren’s honesty about their ambitions has been what has kept him at the team.
READ: Helmut Marko sends Max Verstappen warning as he makes Sebastian Vettel revelation
“It’s just faith, it’s just honesty – that’s the main thing I need,” explained Norris.
“I’m not a guy who likes BS or likes people trying to make me happy, I like people just being honest.
“I have faith in McLaren, I have faith in the guys I work with, the whole team.”
McLaren narrowly missed out on fourth place in the constructors’ championship in 2022, being just beaten by Alpine, who had looked stronger all year but struggled with mechanical issues at multiple race weekends.
On a personal level, Norris finished seventh in the drivers’ championship which means that he was the highest scoring driver outside of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, despite not having a ‘best of the rest’ car for the majority of the season.
Norris has told reporters that he believes that his team should have achieved more in 2022, but thinks that they are heading in the right direction to return to glory.
“If we want to do well and we want to be champions at some point and we want to win races, we can’t be satisfied with where we have been this season,” suggested the Brit.
READ: Nicholas Latifi makes admission about his Formula 1 career
“But we can certainly be satisfied with the progress we’ve made.
“From the mechanics with our pit stops, our strategy, the whole team’s worth ethic – so many things are working well, it’s just we need a slightly better car, that’s all.”
The McLaren driver came painfully close to his maiden victory in F1 last year in Russia, but a communication mix up with his team about incoming wet conditions saw Norris hand the victory to Lewis Hamilton, who had pitted for the intermediate tyres.