F1 News: Lando Norris Confesses He Had Considered Leaving McLaren

Lando Norris signed a long-term contract with McLaren in 2022 that expires in 2025. However, as the team struggled to provide him with a fast enough F1 car until mid of this year, Norris revealed that had kept all options open, including leaving McLaren.

While the start of the season remained quite 'dull' in terms of the positions he secured, Norris regained form and confidence in the team after the mid-season upgrades on the MCL60 F1 car that helped him secure back-to-back second places in July.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Norris revealed that he was here to win. When asked if he sides with McLaren's chief executive Zak Brown's belief that the MCL60's improved pace would convince him to stick around. He 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."

Before the scene at McLaren improved suddenly, it was rumored that Norris could be a potential Max Verstappen teammate, especially considering reports that Red Bull was actively seeking a Sergio Perez replacement. Norris acknowledges that it was at the back of his head whether to continue with McLaren or look elsewhere. He revealed:

"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?

"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."

Norris is pleased by the fact that the fight for the podium is bound to continue with the improvement in performance. Though the first place has been tightly secured by championship leader Max Verstappen, he (Norris) is confident of fighting other fierce contenders such as Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin for the second or third place. When asked if the fight behind the race leader would get any hotter, he replied saying:

"I want to give a straight answer, yes. There's definitely going to be some races that we're going to struggle a lot more.

"The same with every team, every year - sometimes they'll be like, 'yeah, I'm definitely confident we can do it,' and there's going to be some where you're like, 'this just doesn't quite suit us enough to confidently be there.'

"And we have two cars, two Red Bulls that basically should be one-two every single race this year. So it's like kind of fighting for third place and if things happen with one of those two drivers, then maybe you're fighting for second or first.

"But really, there's only one spot that you're kind of actually looking at, and you have two Mercedes who have been very consistent all season, and then you can never count out Ferrari and Aston, especially this year."

Despite securing a seventh spot at the Belgian Grand Prix, Norris urges his fans to look at the bright side and be happy with the team's progress. He said:

"I think they [McLaren fans] should still be very happy that we're not fighting for 18th and 19th.

"I'm very happy, even if we were behind Mercedes now, I'm still very, very happy with the progress we've made.

"From where we were, I would say it's one of the biggest turnarounds in the middle of a season for many, many years in Formula 1, and that's a very good thing to have done."