Lando Norris has signed a new £120million McLaren contract to keep him with the British team until at least the end of the 2030 season.
The Press Association understands Norris’ four-year contract extension could be worth up to £30m a season, to leave the world champion trailing only Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen as one of the sport’s big earners.
It is just reward for Norris, 26, who last season delivered McLaren’s first drivers’ title since Hamilton triumphed for them in 2008.
Confirmation of his new deal arrives just six days after Norris won for a second time in succession, at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, to raise hope of defending his world crown. He trails Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 83 points with a scheduled 11 rounds still remaining.
Hamilton and Verstappen – the latter agreeing a bumper Red Bull extension earlier this month – are both understand to earn more than £60m annually.
And Norris said: “I feel I should earn as much as them, but (the contract) is certainly not close to the level of Lewis or Max, which, in a way, it shouldn’t be because I’ve not achieved as much as them in their careers.
“But in another way, I believe it should be, because I believe I can fight against them whenever I need to, and I can do a better job whenever I need to. But I’m working on it. Hopefully I can then try and match it one day.”
Norris’ extension will carry him to at least 12 seasons with McLaren, having signed to their junior programme when he was just 17.
Although Norris admitted there has been interest from rival teams, the Englishman – who has already competed in more races for McLaren than any driver in their history – had no desire to leave.
“There was interest from other teams but there was no interest (from me) towards other teams,” he added. “It really was the easiest decision I’ve had to make in my career so far.
“I’ve not been someone who’s jumped from team to team. I’ve stuck with McLaren through times when there were opportunities in the past to go elsewhere.
“I was very happy to just stay where I felt very comfortable, followed by the fact that I wanted to get good results. And I still believed through the earlier, harder periods at McLaren that what we achieved over the last few years was possible and obviously all of that came true.
“Of course, I’ll always have thoughts into the future, but at the minute, there’s really no reason to want to even put a thought into somewhere else. I’ll be very happy at the end of my career to say that McLaren is the only team I’ve been with.
“And if you think of it from a team perspective; what’s going to motivate the team, what’s going to make them more comfortable, what’s going to give them the biggest kind of a push – and we need every push we can have at the minute from morale and a motivation perspective – then it is perfect timing. I want them to know that there’s no other place I’d rather be than right here.”
Norris will bid to further enhance his title credentials by claiming a hat-trick of victories at next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
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