Norris delivers emotional McLaren message after Verstappen 'flip around'

Lando Norris has delivered an emotional message to McLaren as the team's day of destiny nears in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 

McLaren will win the constructors' championship for the first time since 1998 if it is not out-scored by Ferrari by 21 points if the Scuderia wins or by 22 points if not. 

The odds are firmly in McLaren's favour as it will start one-two on the grid with Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in third. The sister Ferrari of Charles Leclerc is last following a grid penalty.

It means that for the first time in the lifetime of either Norris or Piastri, McLaren can win the constructors' - a feat Norris put into perspective having made his debut in 2019 with the team in the heyday of the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull dominance.

"Oscar’s probably fortunate not to go through those first few years that we've had, we didn't start off great last year, we started off with this [Sainz in 2019] and we made progress, stepped back, made progress, stepped back, nothing ever clicked, really, and never continued to grow," he told media including RacingNews365.

"It was hard just to break that barrier of getting close to Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull, you know, because for such a long period of time, they've been the guys who have dominated Formula 1.

"Now, not only have we broken that barrier over the last year and a half, we've risen to the top of it and to become the best team and leading and hopefully to go on to win, I don't think, simply from the outside, people would give McLaren and my team enough credit for what they've done, what they've turned around, because it's not an easy sport. 

"It may look simple at times from the outside and things like that, and even I think sometimes things are more simple than what they look."

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Norris's messge to McLaren

In 2023, McLaren went winless as Max Verstappen dominated the season with 19 wins from 22 races as only Ferrari denied Red Bull a clean sweep, but McLaren's upward trajectory began with an upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix.

There has also been a sizeable turnover in staff at McLaren under Zak Brown's tenure as CEO and Andrea Stella as team principal, which Norris also highlighted.

"Ferrari has turned things around a lot over the last couple of years and to catch Red Bull, which I've said a couple of times, and Max, who one year ago dominated every race," he said.

"For that to flip around so much, we can only just give a hats off to the whole team, because a lot of things have changed. 

"People have come and gone, and Andrea [Stella] has done an incredible job, so to be part of this whole story, to be part of it not long after Zak [Brown] joined McLaren and started changing things and making McLaren into a slightly more happy place than it was.

"I've been along the journey with Zak, and we've gone through a lot of things together, highs and lows and emotional times."