Lando Norris of McLaren claims to have the “patience” to wait for the team to turn around and become champions.

Lando Norris asserts that he has the endurance to wait for McLaren to turn around and become a championship-winning Formula 1 outfit.

On Monday, McLaren introduced their brand-new vehicle and stated their intention to once again finish in the top four.

Norris claims that his “excitement” over McLaren’s potential aids him in exercising the “slight amount of patience I need to have.”

We are a team that ought to be able to win championships, and we’ll soon be ready to do that, he declared.

McLaren dropped from fourth to fifth in the constructors’ championship last year, and they claim that they won’t be able to consider competing with the top teams Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes until their new wind tunnel and other infrastructure projects are completed later this year.

Norris has solidified his position among the top five or six F1 drivers, although he is winless thus far.

By the end of his contract in 2025, he claimed to have “absolutely not lost faith” in McLaren’s capacity to meet their goal of becoming champions.

“I am definitely not the most patient guy in the world, but it [patience] is something you need to learn to have in F1,” the 23-year-old Briton admitted. Simply put, I approach my work by taking each day as it comes.

A year where we can confidently battle at the head of the midfield, something that got away from us last year, and lead the fight for the top three teams would be considered successful if we continue to make significant strides forward.

“We can be content if we can finish the season in that position, where we are vying for fourth constructor and paving the route to the top three. That is a doable objective. There is still work to do before we are on an equal footing with the Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes this year.

The head of the McLaren team Andrea Stella stated that he was “optimistic we should take a good step shortly, but happy but not fully delighted with the launch car. Developments made in the early part of the season will help several aspects of the car.

In order to be used for the development of McLaren’s 2024 car, the new wind tunnel is scheduled to go online in the middle of the year along with a new simulator and manufacturing capabilities.

Stella replaces Andreas Seidl as the head of McLaren F1, who moved to Alfa Romeo/Sauber to oversee the company’s transition to Audi.

To accomplish your goals, you often need to be completely content, according to Stella. While we are pleased with the direction the automobile is going in most areas, there are certain areas where we realized some significant trends a little too late and were not necessarily able to capitalize on them right away.

“For this reason, I refer to ‘after the start of the season. I talk about realism because it is more relevant to ourselves.

The Italian, who switched from Ferrari to McLaren in 2015, stated that the parts in question should show up “a few months into the season, maybe less – this may overlap with race four, we will see how early we can get the project to land.”

Stella stated that Norris, who is entering his fifth season in Formula One, is anticipated to assume a greater leadership position with the team given that he is partnered with Australian rookie Oscar Piastri.

Despite the fact that Piastri and the other drivers will only have three days of pre-season to share, McLaren has been working over the winter to make sure he is prepared for his debut in Bahrain next month. He has been collaborating with the engineers, spending time in the simulator, and participating in on-track testing while operating a 2021 vehicle.

After a standout junior career and after McLaren prevailed in a legal dispute with Alpine, for whom he served as reserve driver last year, for his services last summer, Piastri enters the Formula One season with high expectations.

The 21-year-old driver acknowledged that there might be some rust after a year without competing. He hasn’t competed since won the Formula 2 championship in 2021.

I have a lot to concentrate on, he continued. “There will be a lot to learn when I enter the sport in my rookie year. The first goals to address are merely creating the framework for my career and getting back up to speed after not competing for so long.”

Mark Webber, a former Grand Prix driver who now manages Piastri, claimed to have given the nine-time champion “a lot of advise.”

The important takeaway, according to Webber, is to “simply not underestimate the challenge of F1 – it is a big step up from what I’ve experienced previously. The best advice so far has been to prepare.