Beyond The Score

 Lando Norris has essentially become Mr. McLaren after four full seasons at the Surrey-based team. In 2019, he and Carlos Sainz were signed to form the fresh-look McLaren team that began its first full season under recently appointed CEO Zak Brown. It was a move that raised many eyebrows especially with Fernando Alonso moving his separate way. The Spaniard’s time with McLaren can be largely remembered for his “GP 2 engine” outbursts though, not for success.

Norris’s debut season consisted of many solid showings plus a general sign the team was moving in the right direction. Out of all midfield teams, McLaren took the biggest step forward. They built on this in 2020 and started with fire in the form of an Austrian podium that lit up the Formula One world. This made it clear Norris’ quality at such an inexperienced time in his career. Yet, despite this, to say McLaren have been inconsistent would be an understatement. Race-on-race and year-on-year, you don’t know what to be expecting from them. As a shining light in all these troubles, Norris has provided the team with great stability. Despite now working alongside three different driver partners, Norris is just 23 and is approaching the prime years of his career no doubt. The question is will he want to spend that at McLaren?

In 2021, this question would have seemed absurd. Progress was plentiful. That weekend in Monza where they recorded a famous “one-two” victory will live long in the memory of the “Papaya” fans. If it wasn’t for the Formula One Gods delivering rain during the last lap of the Russian Grand Prix a couple of weeks later, a second victory, this time for Norris instead of Ricciardo would have been achieved. Although, apart from a few weeks where Ricciardo found his groove with the car and delivered the performances we know his immense talent can deliver, Norris carried the team on his back. He outscored the Aussie by 45 points and in the race finished in front 14 times with qualifying 15 times. Out of the 20 fastest laps as well, Norris got 17 of them.

In 2022, with an updated regulatory set, this issue was only exacerbated. The fact that McLaren were even in a fight for P4 was largely down to the Englishman’s work. His average finishing position was four places higher than Ricciardo’s. Again, it was pretty clear that he became at one with that car – as tricky as it was – more than his teammate. Despite the promising signs at the end of 2021 and expectations of bridging the gap to those at the top, 2022 was a step backwards. Make a mistake once, it’s a fluke. Do the same next season, there is an issue. With 2023 kicking off on a similar note, there seems to be an issue. Whether the technical shake including James Key’s sacking proves to be effective will be fascinating.

To rub salt into the wounds, those around such as Aston Martin, have leapfrogged them and broken the glass ceiling that is Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari. In considerably less time as well. The point being, McLaren are no longer a team on an upwards projectory, they have stalled.

Norris in a way finds himself in a similar scenario to Pierre Gasly in the past couple of seasons. On the one hand, he has outgrown McLaren, but it doesn’t seem like there is an obvious route to a seat further up the grid. Yes, there has been speculation of Lewis Hamilton taking his stocks elsewhere if Mercedes don’t sort out their recent woes but that screams ‘paper talk’ with very little substance at all. In other avenues, Sainz sees his contract end this season. However, you would expect him to re-sign as he has done a solid job during his three-year stay.

In general, however, a move away from McLaren may not benefit Norris as much as he would like to think. In terms of pecking order, he clearly holds the cards over Oscar Piastri. Yes, the McLaren hierarchy will play the PR game and say both drivers are level in status. We know that isn’t the case though. Besides, it’s more than likely that any car design project will suit Norris. That isn’t an insult hurled at him, because he earned that privilege. Move to another team though, there is no guarantee he will get preferential treatment. In actual fact, it is virtually guaranteed he won’t, and the job of adapting to another style of Formula One car is something that Norris has never had to deal with. He has been with McLaren his whole career with a car that hasn’t changed much over the years, even with the latest generation of regulations. It’s like his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo said: ‘ignorance is bliss’.

In a way, there are actually many parallels with Ricciardo in 2020. The Aussie was imperious during his Renault tenure. Yet a move to McLaren proved to be a mistake as he failed to adapt to an entirely different set of machinery. That decision proved to be the costly reason why he is currently seatless.

One reason he may want to stay is the frequent claim coming out of the McLaren team that they will be competing with the big boys in 2025. James Key’s recent sacking from the technical director role, as mentioned, was a decision made firmly with the 2025 vision in mind. Brown said as recently as this pre-season: “By ’24, we will have had it in place but not for the entire development of the ’24 car. So ’24 I’d like to think would be a good step forward, where I think we could be mixing it up on a more regular basis. Then in ’25, we have everything we need — drivers, people, resources, a wind tunnel, simulator. There’s no reason why, on paper, we shouldn’t be in a position to be challenging at the front on a regular basis by ’25. That’s certainly our ambition.”

Brown fails to recognise that the upcoming facilities are hardly revolutionary. It will level the playing field rather than give an advantage. Does he seriously think Red Bull, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Ferrari and even Alpine don’t have this infrastructure? It’s similar to the current football trend with billionaire owners. When every club has a billionaire owner, it is no longer a competitive advantage.

In the meantime, in 2023 it’s a banana peel for Norris. Piastri is a rookie which puts Norris in a lose-lose situation. If the Englishman wins? Well, yeah we expect that. If he loses what will the narrative be? Well, he lost to a rookie who is only beginning to experience the F1 world.

Whether he will be a McLaren driver for years to come heavily relies on the development of the team and whether they can get back to a place where they are in an upwards projectory. Overall, even if he moves, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. He only needs to look at his former teammate to recognise that.

All images : Wikimedia Commons