Lando Norris is the latest in a string of top-flight drivers to now commit his future, long-term, to the team he has made his home. The world champion has signed a contract extension which will see him remain at McLaren until the end of the 2030 season with a huge pay rise to boot.
The British driver competed alongside George Russell in F2 during the 2018 season, coming runner-up in the championship to the Mercedes junior driver. He was thrust straight into the McLaren F1 team the following year, alongside experienced racer Carlos Sainz, who ended the season with roughly twice the points of the McLaren rookie.
From Rookie Promise to World Champion
Despite losing out to the Spaniard in terms of the driver standings, Norris did out-qualify Sainz Jr. in eleven of the twenty-one Grand Prix weekends. At the season opener in 2020, Lando claimed his first podium when Lewis Hamilton, ahead in third place, was given a five-second time penalty. At the time, he was the third-youngest F1 driver to make the top three in a Grand Prix.
The following year, Lando was quickest in qualifying during a wet session for the Russian Grand Prix. His maiden pole should have led to his first victory, but deciding to stay out late in the race on slick tyres as the rain came down meant Lewis Hamilton, who had pitted for wet-weather tyres, would take the chequered flag.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Norris re-signed with McLaren, and at the inaugural Grand Prix in Miami, he would claim his maiden GP victory. Starting in P5, Lando stayed out longer than his rivals ahead and would benefit from a safety car and a cheap pit stop, which would hand him the Grand Prix win. This being his 16th podium finish had seen him tie the record for the most podiums in F1 without a win.
The following year, despite taking victory in the season opener in Melbourne, Norris trailed his teammate in the race for the world championship. Following the Dutch Grand Prix, he found himself 34 points behind Oscar Piastri but staged what many believed to be an impossible comeback to take his first drivers’ world title at the final race in Abu Dhabi.
A Departure from F1’s Volatile Past
Signing up to remain with McLaren until 2030 sees Lando become the latest in a line of “lifer” F1 drivers, who remain with one team for the majority or all of their racing career. Max Verstappen’s recent contract extension announced at his home race means he will complete a massive fifteen years since he joined the Red Bull team in 2016.
Yet it wasn’t always this way. Months after dominating the 1992 season with Williams to win his long-awaited World Championship, Nigel Mansell walked away from Formula 1 entirely. Bitter contract disputes and personality clashes with team boss Frank Williams (alongside the arrival of Alain Prost) led Mansell to quit F1 and head across the pond to conquer IndyCar.
Williams were the team to feature the next shock F1 driver departure in Damon Hill following his championship victory in 1996. Frank Williams decided he would sack his champion driver in favour of the promising German Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 1997. It was a decision the late Sir Frank Williams admitted he regretted.
Drivers, no matter how good they were, just did not remain with a Formula One team for extended periods. Prior to Michael Schumacher’s move to Ferrari in 1996, the longest-serving driver was Jim Clark with Team Lotus. He was the first driver to drive exclusively for one F1 team, completing 72 Grand Prix starts, winning two world championships along with twenty-five wins before his tragic death in 1968.
The Evolution of Team Commitment
Fresh off back-to-back world championships, Michael Schumacher made the shock move away from the dominant Benetton setup to join a struggling Ferrari team who last won a title in 1979. He remained with the Scuderia for eleven seasons, winning five more titles with the iconic Italian racing team.
The next ‘lifer’ F1 driver would be Lewis Hamilton, who joined Mercedes in 2013 just before the big engine regulation change the following season. After twelve seasons, six driver titles, and 84 Grand Prix wins, Hamilton would break F1’s most successful driver/team combination and leave for Ferrari as Schumacher had done.
Now F1 has four driver/team ‘lifer’ combos, with Verstappen set to complete at least 15 years with Red Bull, Norris with 12 years at McLaren, and Charles Leclerc reportedly to remain with Ferrari through to 2031. This will see the Monegasque driver surpass Michael Schumacher’s record with the Scuderia, which featured 180 Grand Prix starts.
Clearly, Formula One teams are viewing their star drivers differently in the modern era than across the entire history of the sport. The contrast is indeed stark when compared to the treatment of quadruple champion Alain Prost, who was sacked mid-season by Ferrari for criticising the 643 chassis, describing its handling as akin to that of a “truck.”
Financial and Regulatory Drivers of Stability
With four of the five drivers in F1 history holding contracts for more than a decade with the same team now on the grid, something has changed in the way teams view their drivers when compared to the era of Frank Williams in the 1990s. Should Kimi Antonelli go on to win his maiden F1 title this season, Mercedes will indubitably lock him in for the foreseeable future.
The driver market is becoming ever more static in recent years, and the reason for the midfield teams is obvious. The adoption of a cost cap on spending has seen F1 teams become profitable businesses with a more predictable future, and so committing to a driver is now less risky.
Further, the length of regulatory eras has also been significantly extended, with the F1 pecking order becoming relatively static amongst the big four. Where drivers would jump teams in the ’80s and ’90s in the search of raw engine power, now the field is more tightly packed—clearly 2026 is the exception.
Yet despite Mercedes dominating the first six rounds of the year, Ferrari and McLaren have recently won races and closed the gap significantly to the Silver Arrows. In fact, Mercedes have won just one of the last six races, in stark contrast to their early-season form.
With only Ferrari failing to win a championship in recent years, Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes are all solid bets for a driver to sign up to for life. This was not the case before the turn of the millennium and is partly why drivers are content to sign such lengthy contracts.
The Impact on Young Talent and Team Dynamics
Further, teams no longer treat their drivers as a mere commodity to be traded, valuing the stability of having a long-term contract signed with an A-lister for the foreseeable future. There’s no doubt Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc are all current top-flight drivers, so why not sign them up for the extended future?
Of course, the longer-term contracts become a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that there are fewer options for A-list drivers to contemplate if making a move. This then tends to see them sign their own longer-term deals, given the opportunity to move to another top team is limited.
Of course, there are those who complain these kinds of “lifer” deals are preventing the inflow of new, young talent. In the nine years since the start of the 2018 season, some 25 rookies have taken their place on the F1 grid. Preceding this since the turn of the millennium, the number was 86 in 18 years, an average per season of 4.77.
Over the last nine years including 2018, the number of rookies a year has been an average of just 2.77. Further, in the modern world of F1, teams are better funded and sponsored and develop identities and cultures for which they become known from season to season. Driver continuity is all part of this journey, as fans now associate a driver more with a single team than ever before in F1 history.
Drivers like Norris, Verstappen, and to an extent Charles Leclerc (1 year with Sauber) have hardly ever known the team for which they currently race. Norris only knows the McLaren of the Zak Brown era, although the team has been through several identities and culture changes over its lifespan.
The Challenge of Changing Environments
As Lewis Hamilton demonstrated last season, it’s tough for a driver to move to a top team these days. Leclerc’s six-year tenure prior to the arrival of the seven-time world champion saw him ingrained as part of the establishment. Hamilton had to fight tooth and nail to have his area around him organised the way he wanted and for his input to be considered in the development direction of the car.
Lewis, of course, is at his third F1 team and in his twentieth year of competition. How the likes of Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc would cope with a change of teams, and how much of a shock to their systems it would be, is something to be considered.
What is true is that the long-term contracts with drivers at top teams are definitely restricting the opportunity for the next Kimi Antonelli. A junior driver who comes through a top team’s young driver programme straight into a race-winning seat is a reality we may not see for another decade or so.
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
