Lando Norris Envious of Friends in Ferrari & Mercedes Front Row Battles: “Wish I Was There With Them”

Ever since the glorious 2020 campaign where they secured the 3rd place in constructors’ standings, McLaren has only seen a downhill trend. In 2021, they finished 4th and then 5th in the recently concluded 2023 season. Lando Norris, who is often tipped to be a driver as good as any on the grid, is growing increasingly impatient. The team has some big projects lined up for the future, but the Briton demands excellence at once. So much so that he has expressed his desire to be in the company of the likes of George Russell and former teammate Carlos Sainz.

As the FIA attempted to level the playing field in 2022 with the introduction of a slew of changes for the cars, many teams struggled to cope. Among them was McLaren. The car just couldn’t extract enough pace from the ground effect to be able to challenge for the race wins. Forget about race wins, the Woking-based team managed only one podium finish, and that too had an element of luck involved.

Growing tired of it all, Lando expressed his anguish recently. Speaking with Autosport, Lando Norris said, “I wish I was there with them [Sainz and Russell]. Of course, I wish I was in that battle.”

“I feel like I deserve to be in that battle. I feel like I can be, and I think it will be a great battle,” he added. “But it’s just not the position that I’m in at the minute… I can race against them in the future, and I can do the same as what they’re doing.”

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Norris feels that he has it in him to compete at the highest level. Some pundits even believe that Red Bull should make a move to get him alongside Max Verstappen. Some, however, feel that would be a big mistake and could prove detrimental to Lando’s career.

Lando Norris is unhappy with just one podium- calls it a lucky shot

In an interview after the conclusion of the 2022 season, Norris talked about having faith in the team. The statements lately, however, show that all might just not be well at McLaren. He even feels the P3 finish at Imola was a lucky result.

In another interview with Autosport last month, Lando expressed, “A podium always means something. It means something to me, means something to the team. But one isn’t enough.”

“One is like, we got lucky, and all of this stuff. You want to feel like you deserve to be there every time and we deserved to be there for sure. We weren’t quick enough to be there. We were kind of way ahead of where we deserve to be.”

“But yeah, one time isn’t enough for me. It’s not a good enough job by the whole team,” he added.

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Lando is currently tied down with his current team until the end of 2025 courtesy of his long-term contract. While any move away is highly improbable, another bad season could certainly make him question his commitment. One can already see the cracks developing in the wall.