Lando Norris commits to McLaren until 2026 and targets tilt at Formula One title
Lando Norris has signed a new multiyear contract with McLaren under which the British driver will remain with the Formula One team at least until the end of the 2026 season.
McLaren have made no secret of their desire to keep Norris, with the 24year-old, who joined the team in 2017, recognised as one of the best drivers on the grid.
His deal was set to expire at the end of 2025 but McLaren were aware that other teams, including Red Bull, Ferrari and Audi, who are set to enter the sport in 2026, would potentially be interested in poaching him.
In staying with McLaren, Norris expressed his confidence that the team would offer the opportunity to compete for a world championship. “There are not many other things you can be guaranteed or assured of with any other teams,” he said. “It comes back to where will I be happiest and where will I be most confident I can achieve the world championship. Now I am more confident than ever in saying it’s going to be McLaren.”
Norris was impressed with the remarkable turnaround the team achieved in 2023. Having started well off the pace, after failing to meet aerodynamic targets on their new car over the winter, a series of mid-season upgrades proved revolutionary under the leadership of the new team principal, Andrea Stella.
After the Austrian GP, Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri scored nine podium finishes, including six second places for Norris, which helped secure the team fourth place in the constructors’ championship. Norris finished sixth in the drivers’ championship, becoming the second highest points scorer behind Max Verstappen over the final 14 races of the season.
The team’s resurgence was key in his decision to commit. “The turnaround was a big part of it,” he said. “Of course, over the last few years there have been a lot of tough ones. I have still enjoyed it, but every now and then you have that little question of: ‘Is this the place to be to achieve that next goal?’ But with how we and Andrea turned things around and how the whole environment is at McLaren currently, that’s a big thing which swings it in the direction at McLaren because it is also results-led.”
Last year Piastri also delivered exceptionally well in his rookie season and the Australian is contracted to 2026.
This year the team have now been able to fully exploit the new wind tunnel and simulator facilities which came online in 2023 and are optimistic the gains they enjoyed in the second half of last season are set to continue in 2024, with the first race in Bahrain on 2 March.