Lando Norris ‘giving everything I can’ to McLaren
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McLaren's British driver Lando Norris hit the Formula One summer break in eighth place with 69 points.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON – Amid speculation that he may be eyeing a move to Ferrari when his contract ends after the 2025 season, Lando Norris said he is “still giving everything I can” to his McLaren team.
The 23-year-old Briton hit the Formula One summer break in eighth place with 69 points.
He is 22 points clear of Aston Martin’s ninth-placed Lance Stroll, but also 13 points behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for seventh. Teammate and rookie Oscar Piastri, who took over from Daniel Ricciardo this season, is 11th in the standings with 34 points.
However, there has been clear progress with McLaren’s MCL60, including consecutive runner-up finishes in England and Hungary.
Norris expressed frustration earlier in the season with the slow progress McLaren have made in closing the gap on the front of the grid in recent years. While the team are solidly in fifth place in the 2023 constructors’ standings, McLaren are still 88 points behind Ferrari and 93 behind the surging Aston Martin team.
Norris recently told motorsport.com that issues with slow-speed corners is “just an area that’s been bad for us over the last five years that we’ve not really tackled that well”.
He points to aerodynamics as the likely culprit, with Norris doubting that McLaren could compete with the dominant Red Bulls even with an equal load.
“I don’t think it’s just about looking at aerodynamically how we perform, but also mechanically and tying everything together and coming up with little tricks and things that some other teams have, to accelerate low-speed performance,” he said.
Even more pointedly, Norris recent said that the MCL60 does not provide the type of car that he enjoys driving.
“It’s difficult to describe. You have to drive it quite one way. But it’s also a way that I don’t want to drive, or like to drive. I don’t like to drive the car the way that I have to drive it now. I feel like it isn’t to my strengths at all,” he said.
“I want to be able to carry minimum speed and to ‘U’ a corner. And the last thing I can do in the world now is ‘U’ a corner. I have to ‘V’ the corner more than ever, and I’ve never been the biggest fan of doing that. And I don’t like it that much.
“Basically, the car only likes to go in a straight line. I mean, it doesn’t even go very quick in a straight line either!”
It has all led to speculation that Norris may look to make a move once his contract expires.
“My future, so I’ve got 2½ years with McLaren. I’m still giving everything I can,” he told Speedcafe.
McLaren team principal Zak Brown admitted a month before the 2023 season began that the team did not hit their development goals for the MCL60, which has been a continued work in progress.
Lando Norris is 22 points clear of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for ninth place, but also 13 points behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for seventh.
The team have made several additions to their senior leadership, and Norris expressed confidence that McLaren are moving in the right direction.
“With all these extra people coming in, I’m also excited for the future in what they can bring. I tend not to look at the future, like the far future, too much because the near future is exciting,” he said. REUTERS