Norris: New McLaren deal changes nothing

Lando Norris says having his McLaren seat confirmed for 2020 will not change anything as he aims to continue his impressive rookie F1 campaign.

Norris has more than double the points of F1's other rookies in 2019 – Alexander Albon, Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell – combined, enough for eighth place in the drivers' standings, just a place behind team-mate Carlos Sainz.

McLaren are 'best of the rest' in the constructors' championship to boot and the drivers were rewarded this week with new deals for the 2020 season.

Norris says that securing his future was not featuring in his thoughts this year, so he expects little to change moving forward.

"Personally I don't think so much about any of the contract stuff," Norris told Reuters.

"It's good news that I'm going to be here again next year but at the same time it wasn't something I was worried about or pushing for or anything.

"It wasn't like I needed the confidence to be able to drive better. I was having good fun, I was relaxed.

"I'm not going to act any differently to what I was. I wasn't nervous, like 'am I going to be here next year?' or anything."

Norris has qualified ahead of Sainz in six of the nine races so far this year and admits to have taken himself by surprise by hitting the ground running in such a way.

Asked if he had anticipated matching Sainz from the off, Norris said: "I wasn't expecting that. I didn't expect anything at all.

"I wanted to see how it was going to go. I would say it's gone better than I anticipated. I'm very happy with how I've done so far.

"But there's still a lot of progress I need to do and make until I'm where I should be."

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