Lando Norris has said he would like to see out his career with McLaren, as the defending Formula One world champion announced he has agreed a multi-year deal until at least 2030 with the team he described as like “a second family”.

The 26-year-old, who won his first F1 title last season, joined McLaren to make his debut in the sport in 2019. He has been with them ever since and his current contract was due to run until the end of this year. Norris emphasised that he had not countenanced leaving McLaren and had made no approaches toward other teams – although some had made advances towards him.

“It really was the easiest decision I’ve had to make in my career so far,” Norris said. “I’ll be very, very happy at the end of my career to say that McLaren is the only team I’ve been with. I kind of want my whole career to be with McLaren, because I’m happy here and I don’t want to change.

The British driver added: “Even when we go through a harder year, such as we’ve had so far this year, there’s no thought comes to my head of: ‘Was this the right decision or not?’”

Norris joined McLaren as part of their young driver programme in 2017 and stepped up to the team two years later alongside Carlos Sainz. McLaren were still undergoing a rebuilding process after an extended period of underperforming. He took his first podium at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2020 during difficult years for McLaren.

Under the leadership of the chief executive, Zak Brown, and, more recently, the team principal, Andrea Stella, McLaren have returned to the front of the grid. Norris took his first GP win in 2024 in Miami and the team went on to claim the constructors’ championship that year. Last year, with Norris winning the title, McLaren took the drivers’ and constructors’ double. He has taken 13 wins for the team and, with 163 grands prix raced, he is their longest-serving driver.

This season, the team have struggled somewhat under the new regulations but with comprehensive upgrades to their car are once more in the mix, as Norris’s victories in the last two races at Zandvoort and the Hungaroring have demonstrated.

Norris made the announcement at a friends and families day held at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, where the team also confirmed he was to be presented with one of the MCL39 cars he drove to the title in 2025 as part of the deal. Norris emphasised it was the environment at McLaren that played a central role in him sticking with them.

“I always want to be where I’m happy first and foremost, closely followed by the fact I want to be where I believe there’s always going to be good results,” he said. “I still believe through the harder periods that what we achieved over the last few years was possible, and obviously all of that came true.”

“People is the most important thing for me. Of course the leaders – but every individual. I’ve built very good relationships with so many people here over the years. People that work here every day, to the mechanics, to the engineers. It just very much feels like my home. They just feel like my second family in some ways.”

No details of how much Norris will be earning were released, but he did concede it was not as much as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have been reported as making in their recent contracts. Hamilton’s deal with Ferrari is thought to be worth $60m (£44.3m) a year. Verstappen’s new contract with Red Bull, announced at the Dutch GP last weekend, prompted speculation it was worth as much as $100m a year.

“It’s certainly not close to the level of Lewis or Max,” Norris said. “It shouldn’t be because I’ve not achieved as much as they have in their career. In a way, I believe it should be, because I believe I can fight against them whenever I need to and I can do a better job whenever I need to. So I guess I have the two opinions on it.”

Last year Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri also agreed to a multi-year contract extension with McLaren.

Stella said: “Lando is an exceptional driver, someone who combines outstanding natural speed with maturity, consistency and a strong commitment to McLaren, but above all, he is a special human being who is valued by everyone in the team. This extension gives us important continuity and reinforces our confidence in the direction we are taking together.”