Keeping Norris ‘absolutely key’ to McLaren’s success in F1 - Seidl

On Wednesday afternoon, McLaren announced Norris had signed another contract extension to keep him with the team for the next four seasons.

Norris was one of F1’s star performers in 2021 with several podium finishes and a maiden pole position which secured him sixth in the drivers’ championship.

After several tough years with Honda, McLaren has enjoyed an impressive resurgence in the last three seasons with a P3 and two P4s in the constructors’ championship.

Team principal Seidl says keeping Norris and maintaining that continuity will be crucial for McLaren’s long-term success in F1.

“If you look at the overall plan we have in place here, the journey we are in, we know that despite the good steps we made in previous years, we still have big next steps to make,” Seidl said.

“We also know that after all the organisational changes that we did here at McLaren, the cultural changes, plus the plan we have in place on the infrastructure side, we simply need more time in order to keep growing as a team and in order to finish these infrastructure projects and actually benefit from them.

“In order to get to this position we are targeting, in order to fight for race wins every race weekend, having Lando with us, and having this consistency and continuity also in the driver line-up will be an absolute key in order to achieve these targets. Therefore it was very important for us to lock in Lando until the end of 2025.”

Norris will remain with the team until 2025, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo has a contract with McLaren for the next two seasons.

Seidl also revealed that he and current CEO Zak Brown have long-term deals with the Woking outfit.

“Key for us for creating stability in the team, this continuity and consistency, not just on the driver line-up side but throughout the entire team and I’m very happy to announce also today that the long-term signing of Lando goes hand-in-hand with long-term commitments from Zak’s side, from my side and my entire leadership team, which again, is a great sign of belief of everyone that is involved in that journey - the entire team,” Seidl added.

“Everything is coming into place over the next couple of years which we need in order to get this team back to the front in F1, which is great news.”