Last Updated on January 27 2024, 12:58 pm

Lando Norris and McLaren announced an extension of their partnership beyond the two years still remaining on his existing deal. Given the young Brit has yet to win a Grand Prix this surprising event means there’s a seismic shift in how Formula One drivers will be treated as an asset to the team.

The fact that Max Verstappen is contracted until 2028 is by contrast completely unsurprising as is the new contract signed this week by Charles Leclerc which will see him remain at Ferrari beyond the advent of the new 2026 regulations.

 

 

 

Norris rookie contract 

When Norris signed his five year deal with McLaren in 2021, he was as yet something of an unknown quantity and the financial arrangements would have represented that. 

In his maiden season in F1 for McLaren Norris was beaten by his more experienced team mate Sainz in the final points tally, but Lando had out qualified the Spaniard at eleven of the twenty one Grand Prix. This saw McLaren lock in the rookie driver on a multi-year contract until 2022.

In the February of that year, McLaren again offered Norris a contract which would see him remain at McLaren until at least the end of 2025. The terms of this new deal saw Norris as the fourth highest earner in 2023 making a reported $20m including bonuses which was just $4m behind Ferrari’s highly rated Charles Leclerc.

Only Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas from the rest of the field behind the top four earn double digit millions and while there are no details as yet of Lando’s improved remuneration, there’s only one direction in which it will have moved.

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Hamilton handles deals differently

The fact McLaren and Norris have agreed a new deal with two years yet to run on his current contract is somewhat surprising. Lewis Hamilton by way of contrast has regularly run down his two year deals with Mercedes to late in the day. The seven times world champion went into the winter of 2021/22 out of contract and his latest deal was only completed with just three months remaining of his current agreement.

Hamilton of course was hot property doing his championship years and by leaving his new deals as late as possible the objective was to maximise his potential earnings while leaving Mercedes insecure over the future of their biggest asset. The notion behind the Norris deal is starkly different in its philosophy.

McLaren could have made their star driver wait for a pay rise for another two seasons, which from a financial spending perspective kind of makes sense. However, Zak Brown has shifted the goal posts clearly for one reason alone and that is to maximise the value of his prized asset driver.

Even if the Lando deal is set to run for five years from now, this doesn’t mean the Brit will stay with McLaren. But the team have adopted the kind of strategy that Premier League Football Clubs operate to prevent their star players leaving without the club benefitting from a payout.

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Brown employs Premier League philosophy

Top footballer’s contracts rarely reach their conclusion as other teams eye up claiming a highly desired player’s services. The longer the contract the bigger the fee which must be paid to price there player away from their existing club.

This will now be the case for Lando Norris. Performance clauses will allow him to leave should McLaren fail to meet the targets they set. However if another team wish to recruit the Brit, the fee McLaren will expect will now be higher than previously when Lando had less than two years remaining on his contract.

The beneficiary of the surprise news of the last 24 hours may well be Carlos Sainz. Ferrari have announced Charles Leclerc has signed a new multi-year contract but have been silent on the future of their Spanish driver.

Sainz is believed to want a deal that extends to the end of 2026, but the Italian media suggests he is being offered just a one year extension to the end of next season. The thinking was by matching the end off Sainz deal to that of Lando Norris’ with McLaren, Ferrari were positioning themselves to capture the British driver.

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Lando deal may open doors for Sainz

Now McLaren have secured Lando’s services until at least the end of 2026, Ferrari must decide whether they want to lose Sainz at the end of the year, or maintain their driver lineup beyond the next regulation changes.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur described his drivers as assets when in the pre-Christmas bash in Maranello he spoke to local reporters.

“Carlos was more than strong when he came back after the summer break, he had a very good sequence with Monza, Singapore and so on and it’s probably also part of the good results of Charles at the end of the season to have this kind of positive emulation,” said Vasseur

“I will continue in this direction, but I don’t want to have one good asset and another one not a good asset.”

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Vasseur describes drivers as ‘assets’

Cleary this was a vote of confidence in Sainz’s abilities and given it was he who claimed Ferrari’s only win in 2023, Fred couldn’t really say otherwise.

Vasseur went on to explain Ferrari treated both their drivers equally in terms of machinery and opportunities on track. Yet  in disclosing Leclerc’s deal whilst remaining silent over Sainz, the Scuderia have clearly demonstrated both drivers are not considered equal in value.

One of the other reasons behind the new thinking of the Lando Norris deal may well have been the result of Alpine’s debacle last year. Having failed to agree a new deal with Fernando Alonso, he announced he was leaving for the vacant seat left by Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin.

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Lessons learned from Alpine debacle

Alpine then announced their star reserve driver Oscar Piastri would take Alonso’s place, only to discover he had already signed on the dotted line with McLaren.

Top drivers have always been a significant asset to a Formula One team, although the length of contracts in the days of Senna and Prost were significantly shorter than today. Drivers would move more frequently when they believed the shifting sands of performance were better elsewhere.

Yet rarely have bog money transfer fees been paid by a team to attract another under contract elsewhere. The Norris deal looks set to change all this unless McLaren give him a title winning car over the next season or two.

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