Lando Norris has welcomed the raft of technical appointments and team developments at McLaren in their battle to fight at the front again in Formula 1. The squad have announced several changes in recent weeks, with Rob Marshall set to join from Red Bull in 2024 as Technical Director, Engineering & Design. Marshall will work alongside Peter Prodromou and David Sanchez within the F1 Technical Executive team, with the news coming after the departure of previous Technical Director James Key in March. Norris believes that bringing in such experienced names in the sport is a positive step for McLaren.
Norris welcomes arrival of 'big names'
"From the side of the team and the new people, I'm very happy," Norris told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. "There are some big names coming in which is always a great thing, a great addition. People who have been in the sport for many years who have been a crucial part of the success of other teams. "Knowledge is one of the biggest things in Formula 1 and personnel, so I think getting some big guys in – not that we had bad people because that's absolutely not true – but making the force bigger is what we needed to go out and compete against these other teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and so on. "It's a very good thing."
Progress already being made at McLaren, says Norris
While the 2023 F1 season has been a mixed one for McLaren so far, Norris thinks that signs of progress are already starting to become evident, leaving him excited about the Woking outfit's future prospects. "Already factually there's been some good improvements from the development rate and things like that, new ideas, new perspectives so already good progress has been made," the Briton explained. "I'm looking forward to this year, how we can go into the winter and be better prepared for 2024, and by then we'll have the new wind tunnel and new simulator, and more people coming in 2024 so then I look even more forward to 2025. "So a lot of exciting things. I try in a way not to look too much into the future, but when you're struggling and [having] difficult weekends then you also want to look at the future. "I'm very excited for what McLaren are doing, what they've done and the changes we've got ahead."
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