Monaco lifestyle out of Norris’ reach
Twenty-year-old McLaren driver’s annual salary not enough to live in the principality
>> LONDON: McLaren driver Lando Norris has revealed he is not paid enough to live the glamour life enjoyed by many of his Formula One rivals in Monaco.
Norris is about to embark on his second year in Formula One after a successful rookie campaign.
The 20-year-old was given a new McLaren deal last year, but his reported £400,000 annual salary is dwarfed by the multi-millionaire incomes enjoyed by star drivers like Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
As such, Norris is not yet ready to join the motor racing tradition of moving to the principality.
“I am firmly staying in the UK,” Norris said at his team’s 2020 launch this week.
“Compared to a lot of the other drivers, I am not earning the amounts that would make it more beneficial to live in Monaco than the enjoyment loss of going into London with my friends.
“Hopefully that is something I can look forward to in the future.”
Instead of hunting for a plush abode in Monaco, during the sport’s off-season Norris left his old flat to move into new accommodation within striking range of McLaren’s Woking headquarters.
“I timed it the other day and it took me three minutes and 20 seconds to get home from the factory, and that is driving within the speed limit,” he added.
“I like everything how it is now. I like going out with my group of friends, and I still have a lot of fun. If I move to Monaco I am not going to enjoy things at all.”
Norris helped to take the wraps off the new car McLaren hopes will enable them to take another step forward on their journey back to the front of the grid.
Britain’s most successful team has spent much of recent F1 history in turmoil, but they finished fourth in the constructors’ championship last year, with Norris’ teammate Carlos Sainz recording McLaren’s first podium in five years at last season’s chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix.
“I get noticed a little bit more but I am not Lewis Hamilton,” added Norris, who recorded a best finish of fifth in his maiden campaign.
“I don’t get stopped everywhere I go. I am at the point where it is cool. I am not at the point yet where I need to go undercover.
“Now and then, you do get the odd face staring at you at dinner. You are trying to eat and then you have some guy watching you which is a bit weird, but I don’t mind.”
Meanwhile, Sainz wants to stay at McLaren and is talking already to the former Formula One champions about a contract extension beyond 2020. “Obviously, it’s not a secret that I’m very happy here in McLaren,” he said.
“There’s obviously been some things going on in the background, we’ve started to talk already but at the same time we are going to take it easy because we are in February so there’s no rush at all.
“But I am not going to hide that I’m very, very happy in McLaren and I have a lot of faith in this project.”