Lando Norris admits leaving McLaren had been “in the back” of his mind before the team’s recent upswing in form.
McLaren had a miserable start to the season as it failed to score points in the opening two races, resulting in a major reshuffle of its technical team.
While performances improved, Norris only managed one top-six finish over the first eight rounds, fuelling speculation over his McLaren future despite having a contract until 2025.
But since introducing a major mid-season upgrade in Austria, McLaren is now fighting at the front end of the grid, with the much-improved MCL60 guiding Norris to back-to-back podiums at Silverstone and Hungary.
Now that the Woking-based team is a firm contender for regular podiums, Norris has renewed ambitions to help McLaren return to world championship success.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Norris said: “Of course I want to win races with McLaren. I want to win in papaya, I want to win championships.
“I want to achieve my success and I want to achieve my goals with McLaren. That’s been my target since I’ve come here, since I’ve entered Formula 1 with this team.
“I guess I’m a loyal guy from that point of view, that I’ve joined the team, they gave me a chance in Formula 1 and I want to deliver and achieve success for them.
“And I think it’s a cooler story at the same time, to go from where we were a few years ago, a team that was really struggling, to fighting back and being that first team to really come back from a long way and fight for championships and wins. I think it would be just a cool story to look back on in 10, 20 years.”
Prior to McLaren’s upturn in form, Norris was rumoured to be a target of both Red Bull and Ferrari, while his decision to sign a contract extension with McLaren was being questioned.
Norris conceded he did have thoughts about leaving McLaren, but the team’s in-season gains leave him “confident” he made the right call to stick around until 2025.
“But in the back of my mind, there’s that impatient game of, ‘do I stick it out for another few years, or is it time to look at something different?’, he said.
“But the more we achieve things like we have done over the past few weeks, the more I’m very confident with the decision I made to stay until 2025, and the more confident I am that we can achieve our goals together in the future.”
