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Norris explains rationale behind McLaren cost-saving

Lando Norris has explained the rationale behind McLaren’s coronavirus pandemic cost-saving steps, saying it is about the Formula 1 team and its sister divisions returning “as normally as possible”.

Alex Kalinauckas

Published: Apr 20, 2020, 1:01 PM

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Lando Norris, McLaren speaks to the media

McLaren became the first team to announce it has furloughed some of its staff, with Norris and his teammate Carlos Sainz accepting pay cuts alongside senior managers – including CEO Zak Brown.

Williams, Racing Point, Renault, Haas and F1 itself have since announced similar steps, which are intended to protect jobs in the UK – where the government will pay 80 percent of wages up to a maximum of £2500 per month – during the coronavirus lockdown.

“The initial decision to do all of it was because of the circumstances we're all in,” Norris told Motorsport.com.

“It's such a big company, that you've got to think about the future of it – and what's the best thing for every single person, man or woman that works within McLaren? And of course, that includes myself and Carlos.

“The best thing for all of us to make sure that when the world is back to normality, and everything's good again and everything is sorted that we can all get back to work, resume our jobs and our lives kind of as normally as possible.

“And that counts for, you know, the 700, 800 people within Racing [McLaren’s various motorsport initiatives]. But then, you know, the thousands of people within McLaren [Group] and McLaren Automotive.

“So yeah, I think it's just the best thing for all of us to be able to enjoy this little bit of time off, let's say, and make sure we come back and resume like normal, basically.”

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Norris also outlined how he plans to continue operating during the lockdown, with a focus on making sure McLaren can hit “top form” when the 2020 F1 season does eventually start.

“It's just trying to keep in contact with everyone, make sure we're still thinking about things that matter regarding F1,” he said. “And that’s not just doing sim racing or whatever, but you still do the important things.

“So going out training pretty much every single day, keeping fit, speaking with my engineers, keeping up to date with the plans of what's actually happening with the rules now because they will kind of changing for next year and the year after.

“You've just got to try and keep on top of everything, but at the same time, there's still a limited amount of things you can just do in this current period. We're pretty much just doing that at the moment.

“A day is [at] 90 percent, including in [my] sim and training and keeping up my exercise and everything. And then a bit of it, and as much as you pretty much can do, [is] dedicated to thinking about when we do go back to racing, what do we need to be on top of and thinking about to make sure that we're on top form when we go back.”

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