‘A silly thing to do’ – How Lando Norris and McLaren silenced their contract detractors

Lando Norris says it’s “nice” that he and McLaren have proved their detractors wrong having faced questions about his early decision to re-sign with the Woking team.

Norris was one of the first drivers this year to put pen to paper on a new contract as the Briton extended with McLaren in another multi-year deal.

Pundits questioned Lando Norris’ decision to re-sign with McLaren

That was announced on 26 January, just days before Lewis Hamilton set the transfer market alight when he announced he was leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025.

Almost immediately Norris faced questions about whether he regretted his decision to sign so early after team boss Andrea Stella’s claim in mid-February that McLaren had not addressed “all the areas” the Woking team sought to fix with their 2024 car didn’t help.

Off the pace in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia where only points were achieved, pundits continued to question Norris’ decision with Naomi Schiff saying there was “no need for him to sign that contract now” while Damon Hill spoke of an “absence of any obvious options”.

But 14 races into the season, Norris and McLaren have silenced those comments with the Briton onto eight podiums for the campaign, including a maiden F1 race win at the Miami Grand Prix.

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“There were a lot of people that didn’t agree or thought it was a silly thing to do, so it’s nice to prove some of them wrong,” Norris told Sky F1 .

“[It was] not me [who] proved them wrong, but the team proved them wrong. They have got what is needed.

“I guess when you’re within a team, and when you’re within F1, you understand things a lot more than people do on the outside.

“One of those things was the structure we had, the morale we had within the team. This was stuff I already saw last year.

“And we still had even more things that were added to the team this year.

“In a nice way, it’s good to see that what I thought was the correct thing has turned out to be the correct thing and that my faith and belief in the team has come true.”

Norris is up to P2 in the Drivers’ Championship , 78 points behind Max Verstappen, while McLaren are second in the teams’ standings where they are 42 points down on Red Bull.

“We’re good and the team is in very good form, we’re trusting one another, we’re working together very well and for us, that’s the most important thing,” Norris said.

“It’s a strength of ours. It’s why we’re now doing what we’re doing and that’s performing as one of the best teams and if not the best team in F1.

“So I’m proud of where we are and what we’re doing and it’s for us to try and keep up.”

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