Zak Brown describes an extended deal at McLaren for "hot property" Lando Norris as a "high priority" - and insists he would not change his current young line-up for anyone; McLaren reveal reworked papaya and anthracite livery for 2024, with new MCL38 car itself set for February 14 launch
Tuesday 16 January 2024 22:42, UK
McLaren aim to tie Lando Norris down to an extended contract beyond 2025 "sooner rather than later" as the resurgent British team prepare to begin a new Formula 1 season not seeing "any diminishing return" from the development path that propelled them up the field last year.
As the team revealed their livery for a new season they have high hopes for ahead of the launch of their actual new car, the MCL38, on February 14, chief executive Zak Brown spoke to Sky Sports News about Norris' future and the desire to tie F1's "hot property" to an extended term soon.
With Australian rising star Oscar Piastri signed up to 2026 in the other seat, Brown underlined his total faith in the team's exciting young line-up by stating: "There's no one who could come knocking on our door that would make us scratch our head and wonder if we'd like them in our car instead."
And on Norris specifically, Brown declared: "There is no number we'd be interested in trading him for!"
Norris' deal may still have two seasons to run but Brown has already identified a renewal for the 24-year-old as a "high priority", in a move which would ward off rival suitors.
World champions Red Bull may be among them given they have a seat open next to Max Verstappen for 2025 with Sergio Perez in the final year of his deal and under pressure after a disappointing 2023.
"I think we have the best driver line-up in Formula 1," declared Brown to Sky Sports.
"We do have a little bit more runway with both [on their contract length] but certainly he [Lando] is hot property so we would like to lock him down sooner rather than later.
"I think he's very much enjoying his time at McLaren and the dream is to win races and a world championship together, and I think Lando's all in for achieving that with us."
Norris' status as one of F1's top talents continued to grow last year, when he finished second six times and was only outscored by Verstappen in the 14 races after McLaren introduced a game-changing upgrade at the Austrian GP.
Red Bull still won all but one of the season's 22 races though, and will remain big favourites for more success this season, although Brown believes McLaren remain the "best home for" Norris, who has been on their books since 2017 when he was aged 17.
"Anytime you have a race car that won 21 races last year it's pretty hard to say that wouldn't be a pretty exciting race car to drive, but I think it's more than just a car," insisted Brown.
"It's trajectory, it's environment, it's family and I think Lando's culture and who he is fits in really well inside McLaren. I think this is of course the best home for him of all the other nine teams, not just Red Bull."
Of course, should McLaren resurgence continue to the very front of the field in future seasons then it would inevitably become the case that more of F1's highest-profile names started looking at them for potential drives.
Asked if in a hypothetical situation where at the end of this season McLaren had emerged as the quickest car and a high-profile name such as a Lewis Hamilton, the team's former star now at Mercedes who is chasing a record eighth title, or a Charles Leclerc, Ferrari's ace who is yet to win a first crown, came asking for a seat in future whether he would still stick with his current pairing, an emphatic Brown replied: "Oscar and Lando are who we want in our car. They are joint number-one decision.
"There's no one who could come knocking on our door that would make us scratch our head and wonder if we'd like them in our car instead.
"So very happy with our driver line-up and just want to continue with it for quite some time."
Brown said McLaren "want to continue to close the gap" to Red Bull in 2024 as the team revealed the colour scheme the MCL38 will run in during the 24-race season, which starts in Bahrain on March 2 live on Sky Sports F1.
He described the reworked look as "spectacular".
Although papaya remains the predominant colour, the livery includes additional anthracite on the sidepods in a nod to the 'stealth mode' scheme the team ran in Singapore and Japan last year.
There is also added chrome - a colour McLaren were synonymous with between 2006 and 2014 - in the driver numbers on the nose.
McLaren's nine podiums last season represented their best return for 11 years although the wait for a first race win since Monza 2021, and second since 2012, continued.
But the quest for wins has been further boosted for 2024 by the arrivals of two high-profile engineers from key rivals this month.
Rob Marshall has joined from Red Bull, where he was the world champions' chief engineering officer, while David Sanchez has returned from Ferrari after more than a decade, where he was head of vehicle concept.
Asked how he felt going into the new season, Brown said: "I feel pretty good. We have got great leadership with Andrea [Stella] and the entire team.
"I think the team showed last year what we are capable of and now with having Rob and Davide joining, that's just some added horsepower, if you like, and we have all of our infrastructure up.
"Still a journey to get back to the very, very sharp end of the front of the field but I feel like we do have what we need. Now we just need to beat the other nine teams out there, which is never easy.
"We are excited, the team is highly motivated. We had a strong second half of the year and I just hope we start a little bit stronger than we did this time last year."
On Marshall, who had been a key senior figure in Red Bull's success, Brown added: "He has got a lot of energy, a lot of ideas. He's been around a lot of world championship cars so I'm sure he'll bring some valuable experience to the table."
McLaren's long-awaited new wind tunnel - which team boss Andrea Stella confirmed has been used on the 2024 car since September - and simulator are now up and running at their Woking base in a further boost to their
After an inauspicious start with last year's MCL37, when they were last in the standings after two races, the team made major gains after an upgrade from July's Austrian GP onwards and finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship. Having successfully identified the path for improvement, Stella says there is more performance still to find.
"We don't see any diminishing returns," said Stella.
"This will have to be proven once we put the car on the ground. When it comes to the wind tunnel development, or CFD development, we see the gradient that we established last year that led to the Austrian and Singapore Grand Prix development, it seems we can maintain it.
"I expect that's where the launch car will be at the start of the season.
"In the ground we are already starting to work on further developments and hope to bring it relatively soon in the season and they also seem quite interesting. I would say in terms of the regulations themselves and the development we are looking that a linear gradient can be maintained."
The arrivals of Marshall and Sanchez complete McLaren's new-look technical leadership structure. With Stella in the team principal role after an impressive first year in charge, Marshall is technical director, engineering and design, while Sanchez is technical director, car concept and performance
Anther ex-Red Bull man, Peter Prodromou, remains as technical director, aerodynamics.
"They come with quite a lot of knowledge which is no surprise," said Stella of Marshall and Sanchez, who started work at Woking at the start of the month. "They have been part of great teams and projects.
"The good thing is this knowledge integrates with our knowhow and what we knew. So it's not like they say 'we should do things this way' which is the opposite to what we do.
"This is quite refreshing. We also appreciate their personnel approach which has engaged people with fascinating technical conversations, so we see the momentum, energy and ideas that flow into the organisation.
"Speaking more practically, right now, we have a 2024 car then we are already setting the basis for how do we evolve 2024 onto 2025 and then there is a 2026 project with completely new regulations, so there is so much work and it's very important to have this high calibre people leading these technical areas because this means we have the capacity, the capability and competence with these three big projects to complete in F1."
24 races in 2024! Watch every round of next season live on Sky Sports F1, starting with the Bahrain Grand Prix from February 29-March 2. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW
