Will McLaren’s F1 revival convince Norris to stick around?

Will McLaren’s F1 revival convince Norris to stick around?

 

 

 

Norris’ long-term future has been the subject of much speculation for months amid reported interest from Red Bull and a torrid start to the 2023 season by McLaren. How have McLaren turned their 2023 F1 season around?Video of How have McLaren turned their 2023 F1 season around?The 23-year-old Briton, who is contracted to McLaren until the end of 2025, is considered one of F1’s most exciting prospects. Since introducing the first two stages of a major upgrade package at the recent Austrian and British Grand Prix, McLaren have enjoyed a remarkable uptick in form, with Norris finishing second behind Max Verstappen’s dominant Red Bull in the last two races.  And McLaren CEO Brown is confident the team’s stunning transformation will persuade Norris not to seek an early exit from his contract. 

“I think the way you keep him is you give him a good race car,” Brown told Sky F1. “And as long as we can give him a good race car, he loves the environment, he loves the team, he’s been on this journey.”Obviously we were all a bit frustrated at the start of the year, but now two seconds on the trot, he’s qualified fifth, second and third.”So I think as long as we keep doing that, then he’ll stick around.”After claiming his second consecutive podium in Hungary, Norris expressed his delight at McLaren’s recent gains. Related Red Bull reveal consequences of ‘significant’ F1 cost cap penalty Horner ‘sending bill’ to Norris for Verstappen trophy smash

“At the minute, I think we’re very happy with the progress we’ve made to go from where we were four or five races ago, struggling to get out of Q1 sometimes to fighting for poles and fighting for podiums,” he said. “We’ll take it for now, and our time will come later on in the year.”He added: “Everyone back in the factory did an amazing job. I think we knew it in the beginning we were going to struggle and we looked pretty poor.“We got a lot of abuse for McLaren in saying they weren’t doing a good enough job, but I’m happy we’ve finally proved some people wrong.” 

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