The McLaren F1 team has evolved a lot since Lewis Hamilton’s glorious championship-winning days 16 years ago. At the start of last season when McLaren had one of their worst starts, Lando Norris almost contemplated leaving the iconic Woking-based team. Back at the 2023 Bahrain GP, Norris contrasted his struggles with Hamilton’s glorious first few years with McLaren.
The 24-year-old’s comments from then have resurfaced lately on Twitter (now X), causing a lot of uproar. However, to understand the context behind it, Norris was only putting Hamilton in his shoes and underscoring how different of a place McLaren was in 2023 relative to 2007-08. Per GP Blog, Norris said, “Lewis Hamilton came into McLaren when they were winning championships and winning races, and from the beginning, that makes you look good.
If he came into McLaren now, he wouldn’t have won a race and he wouldn’t have been anywhere near the driver he is today or achieved what he has today”. Now, Norris has not had the luxury of a race-winning car as Hamilton had from the outset. Since his debut season in 2019, the #4 driver has been getting podiums on the odd occasion but never had the chance to consistently be in the fight for the win.
On top of that, McLaren’s abysmal form in the first half of 2023 was anything but like Hamilton’s glorious days at the Woking outfit from 2007 to 2012. While Hamilton struggled in some seasons, his debut year of almost winning the title and finally clinching it in.