"It's not a case of wooing him or not wooing him": Zak Brown brushes off suggestions that McLaren's future with Lando Norris could be in doubt

McLaren hopes to be in contention for the world championship when F1 takes on the future regulations, and for that, Lando Norris is crucial to the team, as Zak Brown, their CEO, mentioned.

Speaking to ESPN, Brown mentioned Norris's importance to the team. Although he has been short of a victory until now, he does not seem to be frustrated with the team.

He extended his contract until the end of the 2025 season, and while that is good, it will also be the end of the current Formula 1 regulations.

2026 will see new engine regulations, which will force the teams to start from scratch. This would be a good opportunity for teams like McLaren to challenge for the title.

While one might think of Lando Norris as searching for a new contract with a better team to put himself up for victory, Brown is confident that he will stay with the team.

Speaking on how Norris will be important to the team if they want to win a title, he said:

"I think it's been massively important for all of us. It shows we can do it. That being said, we haven't won one with [Norris] yet. He loves McLaren, it's been his family, so there's no doubt in my mind is his number one choice is to win a world championship with McLaren. I think the best thing we do to retain him is to demonstrate to him we're a team capable of doing that."

He added:

"It's not a case of wooing him or not wooing him, it's about giving him a car where he can look himself in the mirror and say 'I think I can win a world championship with this team'."

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Lando Norris does not regret extending contract with McLaren

The Briton made his Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 2019 but has been short on victories since. He has been on the podium a handful of times but is still far from a win. Earlier this year, he extended his contract with the team until the end of the 2025 season.

This might be considered a confusing move since Lando Norris' skills are good enough to gift him victories in a powerful car.

However, he told Motorsport earlier that he has faith in the team and that they will build themselves and help him fulfill his ultimate dream of winning the world championship.

He said:

"But I'm 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 is to win races and to win championships with them."

McLaren had a surprise boost in performance in recent races (Austria, Britain, and Hungary), where Lando Norris was present on the podium twice in the latter two races.

His rookie teammate, Oscar Piastri, too, gifted himself a P4 finish. This shows that the team is positively building itself up from scratch, pulling well away from Alpine in the standings.