McLaren’s reluctance to back Lando Norris’ Drivers’ championship pursuit has been a big talking point in the F1 community of late. Presenter Will Buxton was quite candid about his thoughts after the Woking outfit fumbled a chance to bolster Norris’ title charge by prioritizing him for the Italian GP win. Now, Buxton has opined that McLaren’s diplomatic choices could force Norris to leave the team in the future.
On The Race F1 podcast, Buxton spoke about how he doesn’t understand why McLaren hesitates to chase down the Drivers’ title aggressively. While Norris is still 62 points behind Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s current form being on the decline sets an easier path for the British team to mount a title charge with Norris, said Buxton.
However, McLaren‘s on-track decisions don’t seem aligned with this notion. Buxton said, “There are only four logical explanations I can think as to why they are not backing him. And almost every single one of them, the end result is that Lando ends up leaving McLaren.”
Papaya rules means one thing… don’t crash #F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/wU4qs6H6Us
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 2, 2024
The British journalist also stated that since Norris took P2 in the drivers’ standings, he has been actively asking the McLaren top brass about their approach to his title fight. However, Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have been very diplomatic in maintaining the harmony between Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri, and it shows in their decisions to not take away Piastri’s win in Hungary and not ask him to be the Bristol-born driver’s rear gunner in Monza. Buxton added,
“Unless they really don’t care and all they’re concerned about is the constructors, it makes no sense to me what they’re doing.”
While Buxton’s foreshadowing of Norris leaving McLaren in the future seems far-fetched at the moment, it could materialize if the team carries out its current approach in decision-making. The Briton wants to win the championship with McLaren and also has a long-term contract with them.
However, contracts are often broken in F1 and the dynamics between a driver and team can also change pretty quickly. As a result, if Norris doesn’t feel that the Woking team is supportive of his ambition, his positive outlook toward them may also fade away.
Moreover, the Briton is one of the top young talents on the grid currently. So, if he decides to come on the market, there won’t be a shortage of takers for him. Particularly with Red Bull having approached him previously as a fitting teammate for Verstappen — and his commercial appeal also increasing — Norris leaving McLaren will be the team’s loss.
Marko says Lando Norris would fit very well at Red Bull
“But in terms of youth and speed, he would be a good fit.”
“Sergio, on the other hand, is already over 30 and is going to have his fourth child. He already has other interests, so we’ll have to see what happens next.”… pic.twitter.com/7Dl9nckv1I
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) September 5, 2023
However, as of now, Norris is only thinking about winning with McLaren and he wants to win on merit. That is why, he stated in Monza that he doesn’t want to ask for help from his teammates and rely on team orders to boost his title charge. However, Norris may have to swallow his pride this time, as he needs to reduce Verstappen’s lead by at least eight points every weekend — which won’t be easy by any means.
