Norris admits looking at something different during McLaren struggles

Norris' current contract will see him racing with McLaren until the end of the 2025 Formula 1 season, but he admitted that doubts about his ability to win with them have started creeping in as the once great outfit struggled in recent years.

But now, following a technical shakeup within the team that saw James Key ousted from his Technical Director role, as well as a midseason upgrade for the team's MCL60 in 2023, Norris has been on the podium twice, McLaren seemingly have left their dark times behind, with CEO Zak Brown claiming the team's improved form will convince his star driver to "stick around".

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if that was the case, Norris said: "Of course. I want to win races with McLaren. I want to win in papaya, I want to win championships.

"I want to achieve my success and I want to achieve my goals with McLaren. That's been my target since I've come here, since I've entered Formula 1 with this team. I guess I'm a loyal guy from that point of view, that I've joined the team, they gave me a chance in Formula 1 and I want to deliver and achieve success for them.

"And I think it's a cooler story at the same time, to go from where we were a few years ago, a team that was really struggling, to fighting back and being that first team to really come back from a long way and fight for championships and wins. I think it would be just a cool story to look back on in 10, 20 years," he explained.

But Norris did not hide that he had doubts about achieving success with McLaren; he revealed: "But in the back of my mind, there's that impatient game of, 'do I stick it out for another few years, or is it time to look at something different?'

"But the more we achieve things like we have done over the past few weeks, the more I'm very confident with the decision I made to stay until 2025, and the more confident I am that we can achieve our goals together in the future," the Briton maintained.

Following a tough Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Norris was quizzed whether McLaren's success meant a podium will be a possibility going forward in 2023; he responded: "I want to give a straight answer, yes. There's definitely going to be some races that we're going to struggle a lot more.

"The same with every team, every year - sometimes they'll be like, 'yeah, I'm definitely confident we can do it,' and there's going to be some where you're like, 'this just doesn't quite suit us enough to confidently be there.'

"And we have two cars, two Red Bulls that basically should be one-two every single race this year," he pointed out. "So it's like kind of fighting for third place and if things happen with one of those two drivers, then maybe you're fighting for second or first.

"But really, there's only one spot that you're kind of actually looking at, and you have two Mercedes who have been very consistent all season, and then you can never count out Ferrari and Aston, especially this year," he warned.

"From where we were, I would say it's one of the biggest turnarounds in the middle of a season for many, many years in Formula 1, and that's a very good thing to have done," Norris concluded.

Indeed, McLaren have taken everyone by surprise in the manner they jumped up the pecking order following their upgrade in Austria, an achievement that cannot be taken lightly by their rivals, with Mercedes even admitting they were analyzing what the Woking squad have done with their MCL60.

McLaren are currently fifth in the 2023 F1 Constructors' Championship on 103 points.