After a fantastic 2020 season which saw the Woking-based team claim third place in the constructors’ championship, the McLaren F1 Team seems to really be on a high heading into 2021. Somebody who feels this more keenly than most is Lando Norris, who claimed his first-ever Formula 1 podium and first-ever fastest lap in F1 during 2020’s first race in Austria.
Now partnered with Daniel Ricciardo for 2021 and beyond and equipped with the new McLaren MCL35M (coming with a new power unit from championship dominators Mercedes-Benz), Norris is clearly excited to get his third season in F1 going.
“I’m really excited to be back working with the team ahead of my third season in Formula 1,” said Norris about getting back in the drivers’ seat for McLaren later this year. “Every time I get into the car I feel like I’m growing in confidence and experience, which helps me build my performance year-on-year.
“I’ve been working hard personally throughout the off-season to be as sharp as I can when we get to pre-season testing, and I can’t wait to get back in the car soon.”
Whilst Norris and Ricciardo will be doing some time in the new car at Silverstone for filming purposes, Norris won’t be able to have a proper run in the car until 2021’s pre-season testing in Bahrain from 12-14 March. With only a few days of testing available, he’ll only have a limited amount of time to get to grips with the car’s new characteristics and new systems that will come as part of the switch to a Mercedes power unit.
With the chaos and unpredictability of 2020 behind McLaren and a seemingly more stable 2021 season to look forward to, Norris is excited to get back on track and especially in the countries that Formula 1 wasn’t able to go to.
“I’m looking forward to going back to some of the countries we couldn’t race at last year, hopefully with fans as well at some point, who create such an incredible atmosphere in every country we race in,” he added.
“We’ve really missed having our fans trackside and until we can meet again in person, I’ll be working as hard as I can to give them a good show. 2021 is going to be another challenging year on-track with close competition, but I’m just focused on getting back to racing and giving it my all.“
