Lando Norris piled the pressure on his McLaren team to deliver a competitive car in 2023 as he declared one podium in a season "is not enough".
Norris stood on the podium for the one and only time this year when he finished third in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. That in itself was an impressive achievement which looks even better now the season is over – no other driver outside the top three teams managed it all year.
But the ambitious young Brit is not satisfied with that. While he joked he must be an "incredible" driver to have managed it, Norris made it clear he wants to be able to make it happen more often going forward.
"A podium always means something to me, it means something to the team but one isn't enough," said the 23-year-old. "One is like we got lucky and all of this stuff. You want to feel like you deserve to be there all of the time.
"We deserved to be there for sure. We weren't quick enough to be there, we were way ahead of where we deserved to be but one time isn't enough for me. It's not a good enough job by the whole team and again, all of that is down to the car we have had."
Norris words echoed what he said in October about his future with the team. "I have to have faith that my team can do a good job. [2024] will be our first year in which we have no more excuses," he said, hinting he could look elsewhere for a seat if McLaren cannot match his ambition.
The Woking-based outfit finished fifth in the constructors' championship this year, 14 points behind rivals Alpine. Norris pointed to the team's inconsistent car as the main cause of their defeat to the Renault-backed marque in a mixed season for McLaren.
He added: "Everyone is working hard now. It isn't like it's a new thing. We know we've had a very tough season. We've found it difficult, we've been quite up and down. We've had a weekend like here where we were quick and then we've had Brazil which was one of our worst weekends of the whole season.
"We've had one of the biggest lows and then maybe one of the best highs of the year in the final two weekends, so there's a lot of understanding still for us, a lot of learning but we need to take a step next year, we have to take a step. I feel like everyone is putting in the effort to do that so time will tell."
