Norris hails 'most exciting phase' ahead for McLaren

After McLaren's recent surge in performance before the summer break, Lando Norris believes the team is only just getting started and is on the brink of the "most exciting phase" yet.

McLaren once dominated Formula 1 but in recent years had slipped down the standings, hitting rock bottom in 2017 when it was last-but-one in the constructors standings during an ill-fated partnership with Honda.

The team's struggles led to the exit of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne with Lando Norris promoted from reserve driver to join Carlos Sainz in the 2019 line-up.

That season saw the team finish 'best of the rest' behing the big three teams, and they were P3 in 2020 when Ferrari suffered a major slump. McLaren lost out to Alpine in a battle to retain fourth in the 2022 standings.

This year's campaign started badly with McLaren admitting it had missed crucial aspects with its off-season development of the MCL60. But a new series of upgrades first introduced in Austria has set them up for a much stronger run since.

Norris - who claimed back-to-back podiums at Silverstone and the Hungaroring - is feeling energised by the improvement which is the result of a lot of behind-the-scenes changes to key technical staff and infrastructure.

• Read also: McLaren MCL60 rear wing development taking cues from Red Bull

"Where are we on that story? It’s hard to say because it’s been so up and down, but I want to believe we’re in the most exciting phase in terms of who we’re about to have on board," he told Australian news site Speedcafe.

Norris hailed “the level of work and companionship we did at MTC [McLaren Technology Centre] on how they tried to develop the car, and their ambition to come up with new ideas."

Norris credited the work of Andrea Stella who took over as team principal from Andreas Seidl at the start of the week. "I guess since Andrea came in there’s been a big upward trend in vibe and atmosphere development.”

Soon after the squad also parted company with technical director James Key, leaving Peter Prodromou in charge of aerodynamics and David Sanchez heading car concept and performance.

Engineering and design will fall to Rob Marshall who will arrive at Woking from Red Bull in 2024, with a new simulator and new wind tunnel close to completion at Woking. All of this is understandably good news to Norris.

“We have some good people that are coming from Ferrari, from Red Bull," he said. "People who have a lot of respect, knowledge, expertise in all of these different areas.

"They seem to have more knowledge and a clearer path of what really needs to change, and that gives me a lot of confidence.

"I’m looking forward to what’s to come, because I believe it’s more exciting than where we could have been," he insisted. “So many things have taken a good step forward."

Norris is currently in eighth place in the driver standings behind drivers for Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, as well as Fernando Alonso who had a strong start to the season for his new team Aston Martin.

Even though Aston has gone off the boil in recent outings, the team is still 93 points ahead of McLaren in the constructors standings with ten races remaining, while Norris is 80 points behind Alonso in the drivers championship.

But Norris is only a little over 20 points behind a packed trio of drivers including Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Charles Leclerc if McLaren's current strong run continues.

And he has a healthy lead over his rookie team mate Oscar Piastri in P11, who put in a strong performance in the recent Belgian sprint race in which he started on the front row and briefly took the lead from Max Verstappen before settling for second.

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