Sky Sports F1 expert Karun Chandhok has given his thoughts on Lando Norris’ situation at McLaren, with the team having a tough start to 2023.
The Woking-based outfit had a tough pre-season testing period in Bahrain and followed that up with an equally frustrating first race weekend at the same venue, with neither driver scoring points and both cars having issues.
Clearly, then, a far from ideal start to proceedings this year and, after they suffered a sluggish start in 2022, there’s a sense of familiarity right now, unfortunately, at McLaren.
They are working hard, of course, and some upgrades are expected in a few races from now but how much they help the team close the gap to those in front of them remains to be seen, and it’s certainly not the sort of start to the season that Lando Norris would have been hoping for.
Now in his fifth year in F1, Norris is seen as one of the best drivers on the grid but, of course, that can only count for so much.
You need the car to be one of the best on the grid in order to really challenge for the biggest results and, ultimately, Norris does not have that available to him again this season by the looks of things.
It begs the question as to how long he’ll be willing to stick with the McLaren project, then, with him currently under contract to the end of 2025.
Indeed, speaking to GIVEMESPORT exclusively, Chandhok believes that the length of that deal could be a potential blockade to any move before the end of ’25 for Norris, though of course contracts can always be bought out:
“Lando is committed to McLaren long term but I wasn’t convinced when he signed,” said Chandhok.
“I think it’s the right thing for McLaren because he’s the best driver on the grid outside the top three teams, so I think that’s a great bit of negotiation by Zak Brown and the team but [for Lando] I’m not sure it’s the best thing for him to have committed for so long, because you need to have options.
“Of course, everyone can be bought out of contracts but it just makes it a barrier to be released on your contract. We’ve just got to see what the market does. What Lewis [Hamilton] does will dictate so much in the market.”
Norris is believed to earn around £320k-a-week on his current deal with McLaren, worth an incredible £20m-a-year. Whoever potentially signs him, if he ever did leave McLaren, then, would have to pay big bucks.
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