McLaren driver Lando Norris has revealed that he is not paid enough to live the glamour life enjoyed by many of his Formula One (F1) rivals in Monaco.
Norris is about to embark on his second year in F1 after a successful rookie campaign.
The 20-year-old was given a new McLaren deal last year, but his reported £400,000 (US$521,000) annual salary is dwarfed by the multi-millionaire incomes enjoyed by star drivers like Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
Photo: AP
As such, Norris is not yet ready to join the motor racing tradition of moving to the principality.
“I am firmly staying in the UK,” Norris said at his team’s season launch on Thursday. “Compared to a lot of the other drivers, I am not earning the amounts that would make it more beneficial to live in Monaco than the enjoyment loss of going into London with my friends. Hopefully that is something I can look forward to in the future.”
Instead of hunting for a plush abode in Monaco during the sport’s off-season, Norris left his old apartment to move into a new accommodation within striking range of McLaren’s Woking headquarters.
“I timed it the other day and it took me three minutes and 20 seconds to get home from the factory, and that is driving within the speed limit,” he added. “I like everything how it is now. I like going out with my group of friends and I still have a lot of fun.”
Norris helped to take the wraps off the new car that McLaren hopes will enable them to take another step forward on their journey back to the front of the grid.
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown believes that the British team have “turned the corner” and can look forward to this season with fresh optimism.
After years of disappointment, McLaren finished fourth in the constructors’ championship last season — their best finish since 2012.
“These are very exciting times. We have turned the corner. We have a long way to go, but I am excited for the first race,” Brown said. “Our two drivers have brought a lot of energy to the team, so credit to them — and McLaren is a fun place to be.”
Joining Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr celebrated McLaren’s first podium in five years at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“We have hopefully put together a better package, a better car, and I have the feeling everything is coming together,” Sainz said. “We have a positive momentum from last season and we are hoping to carry that on this year.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with