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via Reuters

via Reuters

Lando Norris has become the wonderboy for McLaren in the past couple of years. Despite being on the young side, Norris has been quite consistent and improved his performances by leaps and bounds. Although, McLaren is failing to give him a competitive car for winning races. Still, Lando is committed to driving the team forward back to its glory days. But, the F1 fans do not seem to agree with this sentiment, after a recent GQ feature.

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As per the February Cover of British GQ magazine, Lando Norris is mentioned in the top right corner with the statement, “Lando Norris is Driving McLaren back to Glory”. Besides this, Norris is featured beside soccer sensation Erling Haaland. So, fans have also been asking the pertinent question of why they are featuring Norris, if Haaland has all the focus with his picture on the cover.

But, the bigger pertinent question is about can Norris really drive McLaren to F1 glory. While the story is yet to be out, fans have already jumped on this mocking Norris and McLaren.

McLaren took a big step back in performance in 2022, after almost being the 3rd fastest car in 2021. Despite tailing off in the second half of the 2021 season, the Woking outfit had a good chance of being competitive with the new regulations. Norris and Co. were quite optimistic about McLaren getting back to the top with the new ground-effect cars.

via Reuters

But, it turned out to be the opposite case, as the team slipped back further in the midfield last season. At one point, Norris and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo were not even in regular contention for points. Though, with some car development, they managed to salvage the year with a tough fight for P4 against Alpine.

Now, as 2023 beckons, fans have low expectations from the team to move up the grid. Thus, when fans saw this statement on the GQ cover besides Haaland, they took to social media to brutally snub Norris and McLaren.

Fans React to “Lando Norris is Driving McLaren to Glory” statement

Having a long-term contract until 2025, Norris cannot do much and have faith in McLaren to deliver him a good race-winning car. Fans have reacted to how Lando and McLaren may not be able to bring back their glory days. While some fans also feel Norris and Haaland featuring on the same cover does not fit right.

Norris certainly would love to prove fans wrong by being McLaren’s savior. Though, at the moment, even he does not seem to be excited about the team’s downward spiral. Back in 2019, when Lando joined, it felt like the Woking team will revive its championship-winning days. But, since then, the stepbacks in the last 2 years have cost them a lot.

In the last decade, McLaren has only won one race which was the 2021 Italian GP. Even then, it was the struggling Daniel Ricciardo who led the team to glory, while Norris was marginally quicker that weekend and finished P2. Still, Lando blew his chance to secure a maiden win in Russia, just a couple of weeks later. So, fans have some reason to troll the Briton for the same.

Read More: Lando Norris Left Wide-Eyed at Possible Inheritance of Cursed F1 Nickname: “Do I Look Like…?”

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Nonetheless, over the last 2 years, Norris has been the more consistent driver. That is why, many feel that he should look at other teams for the future, rather than being at McLaren. Yet, it is perplexing to see a driver of Lando’s caliber and a team of McLaren’s history struggling together.

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WATCH THIS STORY: Lando Norris shows the finger to his McLaren machinery in Frustration

Nevertheless, Lando would want to keep this social media trolling past him and focus on McLaren’s 2023 campaign. While his future hangs in the balance, his Woking team’s commitment may not go to the back burner for now. Do you think Lando Norris can bring McLaren to the top in F1?