Red Bull has established complete dominance over the F1 grid with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at the helm. However, former F1 driver Johnny Herbert believes many other drivers, including Lando Norris, can provide tougher competition to Verstappen if they become his teammate.
Herbert claimed that drivers like Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, or George Russell could pose a bigger threat to Verstappen than Perez. He mentioned that having someone like Norris on the team would be a huge boost for Red Bull.
The main issue with this proposal is that all the drivers are committed to their respective teams via long-term contracts. Herbert, however, believes there might be a way through which Red Bull can recruit the services of Norris.
Lando Norris can bring about a change in Red Bull
Norris is one of the brightest young talents in the current grid. However, McLaren has not been able to provide him with a competitive car throughout his stint with them. Therefore, Herbert believes that maybe some performance clause would allow Norris to leave McLaren and break his $101,000,000 contract with the Papaya outfit.
As quoted by OLBG, Herbert said, “Lando Norris has a long-term contract with McLaren, and I don’t know if he has a performance clause in it to move from McLaren. I think it would be a good move for Red Bull.“
Herbert explained that Norris’ introduction to the team could bring about massive positive changes. And Herbert also believes that Norris is more than capable of dealing with a position of pressure like that of Verstappen’s teammate.
However, there is a good possibility that even with Norris aboard, the Milton Keynes team would still be preferential towards Verstappen. Undoubtedly, the Dutchman is the fastest driver on the grid and has been the team’s darling since 2015.
Herbert addresses the issue of favoritism
Mexican media have always accused Red Bull of favoring Verstappen over Perez. Even though the Milton Keynes outfit has denied such claims, Herbert believes favoritism is common in any F1 team.
The former F1 driver drew from his own experiences that he gathered when he was a teammate of Michael Schumacher at Benetton. He said, “There is always going to be favoritism in a team because you know one of them will deliver and deliver consistently.“
He explained that there are always going to be drivers like Senna, Schumacher, or in this case, Verstappen, who are always going to be able to extract the most out of a car. Therefore being a teammate of any such driver is a difficult job.
