Brown: Norris loves McLaren, it's been his family

But is that enough to keep the youngster hooked? No surprise that Norris is in demand, only 23 years old he has five Formula 1 seasons on his CV and 95 Grand Prix races under his belt. During that period he has established himself as one of the top F1 Young Guns of this era. Dismantling the once-great Daniel Ricciardo in the process.

Lando's shares are on a high, even if he is being kept honest by precocious rookie Oscar Piastri this season. With the McLaren MCL60 on song in recent races, after a sluggish start, they have muscled themselves into podium contention. Norris claimed two-second places in the process and will be hunting more on Sunday.

Ahead of the weekend i Zandvoort, Brown told ESPN that the results before the summer break were timely for the team and Norris in particular: "It's been massively important for all of us. It shows we can do it. That being said, we haven't won one with him yet. He loves McLaren, it's been his family.

"There's no doubt in my mind is his number one choice is to win a world championship with McLaren. I think the best thing we do to retain him is to demonstrate to him we're a team capable of doing that."

Brown laid out a five-year plan that would see his team celebrating GP victories around now, and they are in a better place than they have been in a while. Tussling at the front is where McLaren belongs, those who were around when they ruled the roost will know.

Should they retain the form of Britain and Hungary this weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix, Brown's 5-year plan for a return winning ways might still happen. However it will take a massive ball drop by Red Bull, and of course overcoming an ever tighter F1 midfield.

But that won't stop rivals from wooing Norris and sounding him out for the future. A competitive winning F1 package will, explained Brown: "It's not a case of wooing him or not wooing him, it's about giving him a car where he can look himself in the mirror and say: I think I can win a world championship with this team.

Woking has been a revolving door of staff going in and out. Of the latter Andreas Seidl of course went off to head up the Sauber-based Audi project. James Key got the boot, Andrea Stella got the TP job and the team welcomed ex-Ferrari man David Sanchez and Red Bull's Rob Marshall.

Big news in the greater scheme of things is the opening of the wind tunnel at Woking, which will end their reliance on the Toyota windtunnel in Germany.

Brown confirmed: "Coming out of the summer break, we're in it now. We now have everything in place and just need some more time to mature. So the windtunnel is here, the simulator's here, the manufacturing unit is open."

The American petrolhead-turned-McLaren boss is confident that his race team now ticks all the right boxes: "We've got our team in place. It's stable. We have additional talent coming to be additive to what we currently have. We have all the financial resources we need.

"It's just going to take a little bit of time so as long as we can show this progress... 2026 is going to be a huge reset for this sport and there's not going to be any excuses for us. We have everything we need from resources, people, two great drivers, all the technology, and infrastructure."

Brown believes Norris will be won over by the effort and results: "As long as he continues to see our pace and development then I think he'll have all the confidence in the world that this team's won 20 world championships and have everything they need, look at the momentum.

"You look down the grid, there's as many unknowns about 2026. Red Bull with a new engine, how's that going to be? They've never done that before. There are all sorts of variables going on there and I think our story is as good as anyone's," insisted the McLaren boss.