Lando Norris says "at no point" did he think he did not want to stay with McLaren amid their poor start to the 2023 season; Norris has finished second at the last two races; It's a Sprint weekend! Watch Belgian GP Qualifying live on Friday at 4pm on Sky Sports F1
Thursday 27 July 2023 17:48, UK
Lando Norris says he never had any doubts about remaining with McLaren during their sluggish start to the 2023 F1 season.
The British driver has finished second in the last two Grands Prix after McLaren made a huge step forward to emerge as Red Bull's closest challengers following an upgrade first put on the MCL60 at the Austrian GP.
But at the start of the season, McLaren had one of the slowest cars on the grid after the team missed their development targets over the winter and failed to pick up points in five of the opening eight races.
Norris is on a long-term contract at McLaren which runs until the end of the 2025 season, and the team's poor performance at the start of the year prompted questions about whether the 23-year-old would be trying to secure an early exit from that deal.
However, Norris insists he never wanted to leave and believes McLaren's improvement this year means he can achieve his ambitions of winning races and world championships with the team.
"There were frustrating times and just difficult times but at no point did I think this is not where I want to be," Norris said at the Belgian GP on Thursday.
"I guess there is always a bit of relief just going from any difficult situation to having such a big change around. Even if we just took half the step we did take I think we would still have seen that as a positive sign. But the step was even bigger than we were expecting.
"So of course there's relief, but not just for myself, I think for the whole team. We took quite a big step back over the winter to reassess everything that we're doing and the route we're taking and that's why we were quite delayed with putting the upgrades that we've had in place and onto the car.
"But we took our time, we had to stay patient. Of course, there were some times I wished we had a more competitive car and I wished we could have started the year in a smoother way - especially because last year's start to the season was also very tough. It doesn't give you a lot of hope in the beginning of the year when you've struggled as much as what we did.
"I was still always very happy to be with the team that I'm with. I still have a lot of faith that McLaren are able to achieve their goals and at the same time achieve my goals which are to win races and win championships with them.
"When you have days, upgrades and situations like this then of course there's relief that there are very positive signs that we can jump ahead of Aston Martin, jump ahead of Ferrari, fight against Mercedes and not be far off a Red Bull from one upgrade."
Since Norris received McLaren's upgrade in Austria, he has qualified fourth in Austria, second at Silverstone and third in Hungary and finished fourth, second, second respectively.
Team-mate Oscar Piastri received the updates at Silverstone where he qualified third and finished fourth - losing out in the Safety Car period - while he qualified fourth and finished fifth in Hungary.
Norris believes the turnaround McLaren have made is one of the biggest in recent Formula 1 history.
"The car is still difficult to drive, it's difficult to be consistent, I think we need to do a better job with tyre management and so on, I think that was clear from last weekend that it was one of our weaker areas," Norris said.
"But I think we can be more than happy with the step forward that we've made.
"As much as I'm always going to complain about certain things because that's what every driver does, for us to go from where we were - struggling to get out of Q1 in the first few races - to fighting for pole is one of the biggest turnarounds in Formula 1 for a very long time and during the middle of the season.
"I'm very happy and there are always things to improve on which we are trying to do."
On Thursday Norris also issued a public apology for breaking Max Verstappen's winner's trophy during the podium celebrations at last week's Hungarian GP.
The impact of Norris' traditional celebration, where he slams the champagne bottle on the podium to spray the champagne, saw Verstappen's porcelain trophy fall to the ground and break apart.
"I do want to apologise for it. I never had any intention of doing such a thing and I know how much it means to the Hungarians and part of their culture and so forth," Norris said.
"Of course, I wanted to enjoy the time but it was never my intention to do such a thing. I did apologise to Max. I know I made a couple of jokes about it, which maybe I shouldn't, but I do feel bad. If he did it to my trophy I would be annoyed.
"I do apologise for it and obviously the people who put the time and effort into making it I really didn't mean for it to happen. I will make sure I'm a lot more careful next time on celebrating."
However, Norris has no plans to change his now iconic celebration, saying: "There's no reason why I should.
"I'll just take a little bit more care with what I do. I'll just move the trophies aside and then continue."
Friday July 28
8.55am: Formula 3 Practice
10am: Formula 2 Practice
12pm: Belgian GP Practice One (session starts 12.30pm)
1.55pm: Formula 3 Qualifying
2.50pm: Formula 2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Belgian GP Qualifying build-up
4pm: Belgian GP Qualifying
6pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Saturday July 29
8.55am: Formula 3 Sprint Race
10.30am: Belgian GP Sprint Shootout build-up
11am: Belgian GP Sprint Shootout
12.40pm: Formula 2 Sprint Race
2.30pm: Belgian GP Sprint build-up
3.30pm: BELGIAN GP SPRINT
5pm: Ted's Sprint Notebook
Sunday July 30
7.25am: Formula 3 Feature Race
8.55am: Formula 2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday - Belgian GP build-up
2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag - Belgian GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
Next up is the Belgian GP, the final race before F1's summer break - watch all sessions of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from July 28-30. Stream the Belgian GP and more with NOW.
