McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says it is up to the operation to show its credentials in order to retain Lando Norris long-term in Formula 1.
Norris joined McLaren as a junior in 2017 and stepped up to a race seat in 2019, where he has since remained.
Norris’ stock has risen in recent years and he scored seven podiums in 2023 as he and McLaren surged into contention following its mid-season revamp.
The Briton is under contract through 2025 and Brown is confident that McLaren can demonstrate its capabilities across the board to convince Norris to stay.
“I have a belief whether it’s employees, drivers, sponsors, that it’s our job to take care of them and for them to want to be at McLaren,” Brown said at the unveiling of its 2024 livery.
“So I tend to focus on making sure McLaren is the best environment and people want to be with us, because you ultimately can’t control external approaches to those various people.
“I’m very confident the relationship that we have with Lando, I know he’s very excited for this year and he was very impressed with what he saw in the second half of last year, he loves working with Andrea [Stella] and everyone on the team.
“So all we need to keep doing is keep giving him the environment he wants to be in, and then I’m confident he’ll stick around as opposed to trying to sell against the competition. That’s never been my way.”
McLaren, which has Oscar Piastri under contract through 2026, finished fourth in last year’s Constructors’ Championship after making sizeable mid-season gains.
It also finished several infrastructure upgrades, most notably its new in-house wind tunnel, in which the MCL38 – which will be presented on February 14 – was exclusively designed.
“Of course when you’re building a team that you have desires to get back to winning the world championship, you need the management, you need the technology, the infrastructure, and of course you need the two grand prix drivers – and I think we have all of those in place,” said Brown.
“We have Lando under contract for another couple of years.
“Of course, we’re in dialogue with him on a continuous basis as he’s starting to think through as we are, we’re very focused now here, obviously on the short term but also ’26 isn’t far away, and recognise being able to retain Lando and Oscar for the foreseeable future is definitely a key element and something that is a high priority for us.”
