Lando Norris has set a challenge to his McLaren team as they bid to step up the progress made in 2022.
Norris finished seventh in the drivers' standings and was the only non-Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes driver to secure a podium with third place at Imola. The Brit is set to contest his fifth F1 season in 2023 and is delighted with the direction in which the team is heading after finishing fifth in the constructors' standings last time out.
But Norris has called on his team to become a more complete outfit from next season. "Everyone's smiling now because we've had a good season for sure," the 23-year-old said.
"Everyone has done a good job, the mechanics, the engineers, I think we've pretty much maximised every opportunity that we've had. The mechanics have done an outstanding job in the toughest year for pitstops with heavier tyres and worse guns - we had the fastest pitstop this year and multiple fast stops on race weekends.
"In so many areas, we are on a good trajectory and are better than ever. It is just the one thing you need to show all of that, for it all to be worth. It is the thing that we are missing at the minute.
"The mechanics and engineers are fired up more than ever and have more energy than ever to go bigger and to make a better car. It's just not an easy thing to do, but they have a good plan in place." Reflecting on the 2022 campaign, Norris told Sky Sports F1: “From where we were in race one [Bahrain], I think we’ve done a good job, we recovered well.
“If I think before the season, did we achieve in 2022 what we should have done as McLaren? Honestly, no. If we want to do well and we want to be champions at some point and we want to win races, we can’t be satisfied with where we have been this season.”
The driver has proven over the last several years just how much talent he possesses, and now F1 pundit Karun Chandhok wants Red Bull to acquire his services.
Christian Horner and co already have Max Verstappen on contract until 2028, and teammate Sergio Perez’s seat is secured until 2024. However, as we have seen with the moves during the close season, anything is possible in F1.
“I think [Red Bull] should be going hard to try and buy Lando Norris,” the former F1 driver said during Sky Sports’ F1 season review.
