Lando Norris is extending his McLaren contract until at least the end of 2030, reaffirming his commitment to the Formula 1 team after a highly successful partnership.
The new deal will keep Norris at McLaren for at least 12 years by the time it expires, matching the length of Lewis Hamilton’s time with Mercedes. The agreement represents a major vote of confidence between the British driver and the team where he began his Formula 1 career.
“I’m very, very excited,” he says in his first interview since the news was announced. “McLaren’s been my home since the very, very beginning of my career in Formula 1 and I want it to stay that way for as long as possible. We’ve had a great few years and I’m confident we can achieve that many more times. So I want to stay.”
Norris joined McLaren as a test and development driver before becoming a reserve driver. He earned a full-time race seat in 2019 alongside Carlos Sainz, then claimed his first podium at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix and his first pole position in Russia in 2021.
His first Formula 1 victory came in Miami in 2024. He followed it with his first Monaco win in 2025 and then secured his maiden British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone later that year. Norris also went on to win his first World Championship, giving McLaren its first drivers’ title since 2008.
The driver and team have experienced every stage of Norris’s career together, and neither wants to change a partnership that continues to work. The contract extension also provides stability and allows both sides to focus on performance.
“I know for a good amount more years that I’m comfortable in terms of I’ve got a job and I’m where I want to be, and with the people that I want to be with, and for me that’s calming,” he says. “I can focus on a job I need to do and as a team we can also focus on the job that we want to do.”
He adds: “You can always see results as most important and 99% of the time I think they are, but I would say there’s leeway, there’s leverage in terms of just the fact I’m with the people that I want to be with, people that I enjoy spending my career with.”
“I don’t want to be bouncing around teams and doing different things. I want be where I’m happy and, even when we weren’t winning, I was also happy to be part of McLaren.
“I think something I always know for my future is I want results of course – the team know that just as much as anyone – but I also just want to be wherever I’m most happy and even if we’re not winning like the beginning of this year, it’s not like I want to change team.
“I’m still very happy with who I am with and happy to kind of fight through whatever we have coming up.”
McLaren fighting back after slow start
McLaren’s recent resurgence has strengthened the team’s position in the Formula 1 championship. The reigning World Champions endured a difficult start to the season, with McLaren failing to take the start at the season opener in Australia and both cars failing to start the following race in China.
An upgrade introduced in Hungary before the summer break brought McLaren into contention and helped Norris claim his first win of the season. Further upgrades were added at Zandvoort after the break, where Norris took pole position and secured a second consecutive victory.
Norris remains 83 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, but he and McLaren have built momentum. Last year, Max Verstappen recovered from a 104-point deficit to force a title decider in Abu Dhabi, meaning Norris remains firmly in contention to defend his championship.
That comeback reflects the potential Norris believes McLaren has, but it was not the reason behind his contract renewal. Discussions had already been planned after Norris won the world title in Abu Dhabi the previous year.
Norris knew he wanted to stay, while McLaren wanted to retain him. Both sides were keen to remove uncertainty about his future and discourage interest from rival teams.
“It’s a continuation of my last [contract],” he says. “We just want to be able to focus on doing our best job, to extract performance, to get the most out of everyone and focus on the importance that we do not get caught up in the mess of everyone else deciding contracts.
“I don’t want to distract my team, I don’t want to distract the guys and girls here that are here to give me the best car possible and for me to do the best job for them.
“We want to focus on our jobs and not think about all the noise that goes on in the sidelines. So for me it’s ‘guys I’m here to stay. I want to be with you for a long time’ and it gives them a good boost, gives me a good boost and together it means we can just focus.”
Norris praises McLaren leadership
Norris also expressed confidence in the McLaren structure led by CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella.
“Zak is a very good leader, he’s a very good boss,” says Norris.
“As much as we get on and we just, we love racing, we want to win together, we enjoy golf and things, he is still my boss so he still gives me a kick whenever I do something wrong or if I’m not doing something well enough.
“That’s always what I want – someone that’s honest and who gives me the brutal truth no matter what it is and that something that’s very important to me.”
“At the same time I have that very much so with Andrea, and Andrea is for me – and of course I’m biased and this is the only place I’ve been – but we have had a few different team principals and he is most certainly the most influential over the team.
“He is an incredible leader, someone who knows how to bring a group of people together and also knows how to lead individuals such as me in terms of how I can go out and increase my performance every day and be a better person.
“So, even if I could change anything with where I am now, I wouldn’t and I think that’s the perfect reason.”
Norris will be 31 when his latest McLaren contract expires, and he suggested that he could remain with the team for the rest of his career. He already holds the record for the most starts for McLaren.
“I want to make this my home,” says the Briton, who holds the record for the most starts for McLaren. “I want it to be the place that I am at for a very, very long time and maybe even forever.
“There are more nice things that just allow me to work better here and live better here, and that’s an amazing thing.”
Source: www.formula1.com
