Andrea Stella says McLaren is having "good conversations" with Lando Norris regarding the latter's potential future with team papaya beyond 2025.
Last week, McLaren extended Oscar Piastri's contract with the team until the end of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Although Norris' deal with the Woking-based outfit is set to run for another two years, the 23-year-old is hot property, with both Red Bull and Ferrari rumored to be keeping a watchful eye on the McLaren charger.
Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko recently lamented Norris' "unfortunately long" contract with McLaren.
"He is definitely a candidate for us. In terms of youth and speed, he would suit us very well," Marko told Servus TV.
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Norris, who has yet to win a Grand Prix, has often expressed his confidence that McLaren can carry him to the world title, a belief that is helping fuel his loyalty towards the team.
"We’re certainly having conversations with Lando," commented Stella in Japan last week. "They are good conversations. We are happy with how these conversations are going."
But proving in the next two seasons that McLaren is title-worthy will be key to retaining the young gun. The team's remarkable progress this season is a solid first step towards convincing Norris to extend his allegiance towards team papaya.
"In terms of getting the vote of confidence, we went back to the facts," added Stella. "Cerrtainly we expressed our love, if you want, in terms of this human element.
"And also, if you allow me to say, as a team you kind of want mates to be with you in the journey, especially when the journey is so tough.
"But you also need to talk about facts. Like: what’s the foundation for the future, why you can give us your vote of confidence.
"So with Lando we are doing exactly the same [as with Piastri]: trying to prove as much as possible on track that what we say is realised and trying to create a sense that this is going to continue over the coming years."
Stella made clear that he's not in the business of over-promising or making improbable projections when it comes to laying out the future to his drivers.
"I would be at discomfort myself having a conversation with a driver where I’m trying to persuade him, playing cards that I don’t have in my hands," he said.
"I don’t want to find myself in a situation where a driver said, ‘Hey, you said this would have happened. It’s not happening. I don’t want to be in this position’.
"So my conversations, Zak’s [Brown, McLaren CEO] conversations are genuine assessments of facts to the best of our knowledge.
"We don’t need to buy people in; we want people to give us the vote of confidence to stay with us genuinely, truly believing in the journey together with McLaren."
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