Lando Norris has extended his contract with McLaren until the end of 2025 giving himself an opportunity to break records.
Two days before McLaren revealed their 2022 car, Lando Norris confirmed that he has extended his contract with them until the 2025 season.
Norris also revealed that he had been approached by other teams as well. However, he did not give out the names. The Briton joined the Woking-based team as a junior driver in 2017. In 2019, he signed the contract for the role of a full-time driver alongside Carlos Sainz.
In the 2021 championship, Norris outperformed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo and finished the season at sixth position.
Now with his contract extension, it seems that he will break the record of being the driver with the most races for McLaren.
As per the calculations done by an F1 fan on Reddit, if Norris enters all the races until the end of 2025 with McLaren, he may become the driver with the most entries with McLaren. Doing this he will also overtake David Coulthard’s record of 150 entries/starts.
The fan who goes by the username u/aaron further explained, “Norris currently has 60 entries/starts. If there are 92 races between now and the end of 2025 (assuming 23 per season) and he enters/starts in each, he will have reached 152 entries/starts.”
“So it will be close considering the chance of missed races/fewer races per season. He will be 26 – much younger than Coulthard at his final race with McLaren when he was 33, although Norris obviously has the benefit of racing in an era with more races per season.”
Also Read: Former Grand Prix winner with McLaren talks about his two year stint with team-mate Lewis Hamilton
Lando Norris thinks Ferrari will be stronger this season
Ferrari had stopped development on their 2021 car to put their complete focus on the 2022 technical regulations. Norris believes that 2022 will see the Scuderia’s return to the top step of the podium.
He said, “When the power unit was good, they won races. So I expect them to be very competitive.” the 22-year-old said.
“This year they said they haven’t invested in the development of the car. They were all focused on next season. They are Ferrari, I think the most successful team in F1, and they are for a reason.”
“I expect them to fight for wins and podiums next season. If we can join that, that would be fantastic,” he added.
Also Read: Lando Norris admits McLaren won’t be able to compete against Mercedes & Red Bull in 2022
