McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is hopeful that Lando Norris will “stick” with McLaren beyond his current contract, which is set to expire at the end of 2025.
Norris signed a long-term lucrative deal with the Woking-based team at the start of last season, despite having reportedly spoken to the likes of Red Bull before signing the contract.
Since he joined F1 in 2019, Norris has built in maturity very quickly, with him having arguably led the side since 2021.
He’s delivered some huge results for the British team, most recently at the Hungarian Grand Prix where he finished second.
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Norris claimed P2 for the second race in a row, marking his first consecutive podiums in F1.
Recent upgrades have seen McLaren make huge strides towards the front, with the team having a car which is certainly capable of competing for podiums.
As a result, Brown is hopeful that Norris will stay with the team beyond 2025.
“I think the way you keep him is you give him a good race car,” Brown told Sky Sports F1 after Norris’ Hungarian GP P2.
“And as long as we can give him a good race car, he loves the environment, he loves the team, he’s been on this journey.
“Obviously we were all a bit frustrated at the start of the year, but now two seconds on the trot, he’s qualified fifth, second and third.
“So I think as long as we keep doing that, then he’ll stick around.”
Norris started third at the Hungaroring but was overtaken by team-mate Oscar Piastri at the opening corner; however, the 23-year-old regained P3 after overtaking Lewis Hamilton at the second corner.
He later performed an undercut on Piastri for second, where he remained for the rest of the race.
Some felt disappointed for Piastri that he wasn’t allowed to pit first at the opening pit-stops, which is when Norris performed an undercut.
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McLaren admitted after the race that they simply had to pit Norris first to “cover” Hamilton behind, whilst the Briton’s out lap was also “super quick”.
“In terms of the undercut that we had at the first stop, you just go really with the sequence that is natural, because you cover with the car that is more at risk, and then you cover with the other car,” Team principal Andrea Stella said.
“Lando’s out lap was just super, super quick, which meant Oscar lost the position. To be honest, our approach to these situations is to think about team first. We think as a team, and then we deal with the internal situation.”