Lando Norris drops McLaren F1 BOMBSHELL as exit talks revealed

Lando Norris, McLaren, Monaco, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Norris drops McLaren BOMBSHELL as exit talks revealed

F1 star Lando Norris has revealed exit talks from McLaren

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 6 January 2025 08:27 Updated: 12:19

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Lando Norris has dropped a huge bombshell regarding a potential exit from McLaren, revealing he previously had opportunities to leave the team that would have resulted in earlier wins in his Formula 1 career.

The British star entered the 2024 season having never won a grand prix, but now heads into 2025 having secured four race wins, 26 podiums and finally, a constructors' championship for the papaya outfit.

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McLaren were Red Bull's strongest competitor throughout last season with sparks of greatness from Ferrari providing a fight to the wire in the team standings.

Heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari and McLaren had an equal chance of stealing the trophy, whereas Red Bull had been knocked out of contention thanks to consistently poor performances from Sergio Perez.

Despite both Ferrari drivers finishing on the podium and Norri's team-mate Oscar Piastri having to fight through the pack after an early crash, Norris' fourth career victory was enough to earn McLaren their first constructors' title since 1998.

McLaren are now the reigning F1 constructors' champions

Lando Norris finally secured his first grand prix victory in 2024

Norris reveals rival F1 team interest

Despite the 25-year-old's success last season, he has now revealed that rival teams across the grid had previously approached him with opportunities to leave the team with which he has now built a stable career with.

In discussions which have re-emerged from the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Norris admitted that he had previously had offers to join race-winning teams when things were not going so well with the Woking-based outfit, but reiterated that he was happy he turned those offers down now that he was tasting success at McLaren.

Discussing what the team victory would mean to him, Norris dropped the bombshell to the media: "I think the thing I'll be proudest and most happy about is the fact I'm still here. The fact I'm still in papaya because I believed in the team for many years,"

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have proved a fruitful driver pairing for McLaren

"I had opportunities to not be in papaya and to maybe go on and win races at an earlier stage in my career and those kind of things.

"I had those opportunities, but I believed and I wanted to simply do it with McLaren. I wanted to do it with the guys who gave me my opportunity in Formula 1.

“And as much as we didn't think it was going to be possible this year, we're hoping for next year. Next year was our kind of in-line target, on-paper target.

"The fact we're doing it this year is an even bigger achievement.”