After the news that Lewis Hamilton would switch from Mercedes to Ferrari, it was reported that McLaren had signed a contract extension just in time, but according to McLaren boss Zak Brown, nothing could be further from the truth.
It was the end of January when McLaren officially announced that Lando Norris’ contract with the team had been extended. Shortly afterwards the news followed that Hamilton would say goodbye to Mercedes at the end of this year and switch to Ferrari. At first glance, the decision seemed to have been made just in time, but Zak Brown says that an agreement had been reached much earlier.
“No, we didn’t actually announce Norris at that time,” Zak Brown responds during the ‘Beyond The Grid podcast’ when asked whether the announcement of Norris’ contract extension had anything to do with the news of Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari . “We had actually contacted him at the end of last year, but we didn’t want to make the announcement until he was back.”
“We didn’t want to send out a paper press release. So I think a lot of people thought ‘oh just in the nick of time’? The reality, however, was that he had already signed a few months earlier.”