ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Lando Norris admitted he turned down offers to leave McLaren in the past, and on Sunday his loyalty could pay off as the team are on the brink of winning its first Formula 1 constructors' championship since 1998.
Norris will start ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
McLaren holds a 21 point lead over Ferrari, who will have Carlos Sainz starting from third and Charles Leclerc starting last.
A win for either driver would guarantee McLaren the title.
Norris joined the team in 2019 and since then has had at least one approach from Red Bull. But his loyalty would show that putting his faith in the team was well-placed.
"The thing I've been proudest about is the fact I'm still here, the fact I'm still in papaya, because I believed in the team for many years," Norris said on Saturday evening.
"I had opportunities to not be in papaya and maybe go on and win races in an earlier stage of my career and those kind of things. I had those opportunities but I believed and I wanted to simply do it with McLaren, I wanted to do it with the guys who gave me my opportunity in Formula 1.
"As much as we didn't think it was going to be possible this year, we were hoping for next year and next year was our on-paper target. The fact we're doing it this year is an even bigger achievement.
"Job not done, and Andrea [Stella] will be happy I say it, but I'm proud to have been on this journey and to be on it with McLaren for so many years and I'll be very happy when it's all finished off."
Reflecting on his first years with the team, Norris said: "We made progress, step back, made progress, step back, nothing ever clicked really and nothing continued to grow. It was hard to break that barrier to getting closer to Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull because for so long they've been the guys who have dominated Formula 1.
"Now not only have we broken that barrier over the last year and a half, we've risen to the top of it, and to become the best team and leading, and hopefully go on to win. I don't think simply from the outside people would give McLaren enough credit for what they've done".
Second-year F1 star Piastri said even in his shorter stint with the team, he understands how much it would mean to everyone.
"I think it will be very special if we can pull it off," the Australian added. "You obviously don't want to speak about it too much before the race. Even in my two seasons with the team, I've gone on quite the rollercoaster, the team principal change before my first range, the car was a bit slower than what I thought I'd signed up for.
"And then from one weekend to the next it seemed it went from struggling to get into the points to almost being able to fight for the podium. Even for myself it would mean a lot."