Lando Norris is closing out his sixth Formula 1 season as a McLaren driver in high style: He has taken pole position for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix alongside his teammate Oscar Piastri, giving the two drivers a shot at securing the team’s first constructors’ championship in 25 years.

But that very well could have been a different story had Norris accepted a different role; he admitted during the post-qualifying press conference that he had turned down plenty of other “opportunities” in order to remain with McLaren.

Lando Norris reveals opportunities outside of McLaren

Back in 2019, rookie Lando Norris entered Formula 1 for his first full-time drive with McLaren — a team he’s remained with ever since despite the work it has taken to transform the team into one capable of competing for race wins and, now, the World Constructors’ Championship.

This season has really marked the first year of McLaren’s ascendancy. The driver duo of Norris and Oscar Piastri paired with Zak Brown as McLaren Racing CEO and Andrea Stella as team principal have become a force to be reckoned with. Since Miami, the car has been extremely quick, and for the first time since 2021, a Max Verstappen challenger has emerged.

After the McLaren teammates locked out the front row of the grid in Abu Dhabi, Norris took a moment to reflect on the work that it’s taken to arrive at this point.

“Oscar was really fortunate not to go through those first few years that we had,” Norris began.

“I mean, those were some very fun years. We didn’t start off great last year. But I’ve had some great times.

“[We] started off with [Piastri] and we made progress. Step back, made progress, step back. Nothing ever clicked, really, and never continued to grow.

“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.”

The Briton also took a moment to point out that McLaren has worked extremely hard to earn its place at the front of the field, even if it may not appear so from the outside.

“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 spot,” he said.

“It may look simple at times from the outside. Even I think sometimes thing are more simple than they look.”

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Norris took a moment to praise both Zak Brown and Andrea Stella for their hard work and for transforming the team into a “slightly more happy place than it was prior” — even in the midst of emotional highs and lows.

“It definitely has been a longer rise to get to where we are, which has been fun, and I’ve really loved it, and I’ve enjoyed it,” Norris acknowledged.

“And I think the thing I’ll be proudest and most happy about is the fact that I’m still here. The fact that I’m still in papaya. Because I believed in the team for so many years.”

At that point, Norris revealed something surprising: He could very well have found his footing somewhere else.

“I had opportunities to not be in papaya, and to maybe go on and win races at an earlier stage in my career,” the Briton admitted.

“I had those opportunities, but I believed, and I wanted to simply do it with McLaren.

“I wanted to do it with the guys who gave me my opportunity in Formula 1.”

Though Norris didn’t elaborate further on what roles he may have had, we do know that Max Verstappen invited the McLaren driver to join him at Red Bull Racing.

Earlier this year, he told the official F1 YouTube channel, “I’ve spent quite a lot of moments with Lando before so when I was already winning and he wasn’t. I always told him, ‘Your time will come. Stick to the process, I think you’re in a good team environment.’

“I happily also invited him also to be my team-mate at the time and in ‘If you want to win, you can come here as well.’”

Norris turned that offer down — but it certainly sounds as if there were other opportunities that arose as well.

It worked out well for him. His determination and hard work with McLaren have paid off; he noted in the press conference that the team had no intentions of fighting for a championship this year, and the fact that they were able to do so one year ahead of schedule is “an even bigger achievement.”

Tomorrow, the 2024 Formula 1 season will come to a close when the checkered flag falls on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Only then will we know if McLaren managed to fend off Ferrari for the World Constructors’ Championship — but no matter what, the papaya team has much to be proud of.

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