In the fifth season of Zak Brown’s five-year plan for McLaren to be winning in Formula 1 again, Lando Norris should be regularly celebrating at the top of Grand Prix podiums around now, but that marketing pipe dream has not quite panned out as planned.
Ahead of his home British Grand Prix, Norris opened his heart to PA Media, revealing the painful reality check he is living with: “This has been my toughest season. I have been on the rise and felt that glory and the podiums and then it drops off to the worst it has been for me. I want to win so much, but at the same time it feels so far away,” lamented Norris.
The 23-year-old is in his fifth season of F1, has shown he is winning material and is among the few who are close to the benchmark level set by F1’s current phenomenon Max Verstappen. With good cars, Norris and (maybe!) only the likes of Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and George Russell would be capable of coming close to matching Red Bull’s soon-to-be triple F1 World Champ.
Midfield mediocrity is not a pleasant place to dwell in for an F1 drier or F1 team for that matter, as time is not a friend of anyone as Norris pointed out: “Everyone puts in the effort, and when I am not close to fighting for points, it takes a lot out of me.
“I don’t get anything out of it and it hurts. And when I think I have been in F1 for five seasons, I feel like: Damn! Five years have gone by so quickly and before I know it I will have been here for 10. I don’t want to be in this position then.”
Norris is sure to be top of the driver list for Audi, Mercedes, Aston Martin and even Ferrari
At his young age and with his shares on a high, Norris may be frustrated but a world of opportunities await him, should the stars and planets align as the F1 landscape is in a transient phase. New teams, new rules from 2026 and whatever comes along between now and then.
What is clear, Norris signed a long extension in February 2022, tying himself to McLaren until the end of 2025. Appropriately so, as that will be the final year of the current F1 rules package.
Thus for 2o26, when Norris will be a mere 26, there will be options.
To start with, the Andreas Seidl-led Audi foray into F1 from Sauber is a logical bet. The German team principal will know how good Norris really is, and if he does rate him it will be hard to see the pair not reuniting at Hinwil from 2026.
Also around then, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are sure to be in the final years of their lengthy careers in the top flight, opening up potential spots as Aston Martin and Mercedes. Talk of either Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz being tapped up for the abovementioned Audi seat has bubbled in the F1 paddock for a few months now.
And Red Bull struggling to find anyone who can be Verstappen’s teammate and not get comprehensively destroyed, Norris is probably one of the few on the current grid you would back to come close.
Should any of those possible scenarios come to fruition, these are Lando’s F1 future options with teams capable of, or with the potential to produce cars worthy of his talents:
- Norris-Verstappen at Red Bull;
- Norris-Sainz at Ferrari
- Norris-Leclerc at Ferrari
- Norris-Sainz at Audi
- Norris-Leclerc at Audi
- Norris-Stroll at Aston Martin
- Norris-Piasri at McLaren because they started winning from this weekend’s British Grand Prix on!
Norris: You always monitor things
Of course, it is still early days for Norris to make a decision, but there will be feelers out no matter who says what. And of course, the driver is not going to reveal his hand at this stage of the game.
Norris said of his future and plans for it: “You always monitor things. Every driver on the grid does. And I do think sometimes: What would happen if I was in this position or that position? But I’m not the guy who wastes time thinking about it, or wishing for something else.
“I have kind of got to a point where I am just very happy to keep my head down. When the time comes and something happens then something happens, but I don’t get carried away with any of that, as much as I daydream about things in life, like everyone does.”
Norris and the whole of McLaren will be buoyed by the positive impacts the latest rafts of updates had on Lando’s car during the Austrian Grand Prix. The folk at Woking indeed untapped some handy performance with the upgrade. But one race does not make a comeback.
Verstappen 42 F1 wins, Norris zero
However, Norris is pumped to be racing for McLaren in front of his home fans at a sold-out Silverstone this weekend: “The experience of having a home race and the support of the fans, the cheers and the shouting, is such a cool thing. In a way it makes me feel odd because I could never have ever imagined to be in that position, with people wearing my T-shirt and shouting my name.
“I am an introvert really, and not necessarily the best with crowds. But it gets me because there are people supporting me and spending their weekend cheering me on. I feel like I want to deliver and make sure they have a good time,” declared Norris.
Referring to the benchmark of today’s young generation of F1 drivers: in 2020 Verstappen at 23 had ten Grand Prix victories to his name. A year later he doubled that to 20. Today, at 25 years of age he is heading for his third title. If he is victorious on Sunday in England, Max will have 87 podiums to his name, 43 of those as a winner.
In contrast, although only a couple of years the Dutchman’s junior, Norris has only six podiums on his F1 CV, in 91 starts. McLaren’s Englishman has a lot of catching up to do amid the reality that time flies faster the older you get!