Lando Norris has caught the eyes of some of the top teams recently after delivering some fantastic performances for McLaren. The 23-year-old has scored 48 points for the team in the last three races and has finished on the podium on two occasions in this duration. With him having performed so well, there have been rumors that Red Bull are considering signing him. As these speculations continue, the Briton has made his loyalties clear that he has no desire to become Max Verstappen’s teammate.
Norris did so by recently reiterating his desire to stay at McLaren and achieve his goals with the team. He perhaps has made such remarks because the Woking-based outfit has shown some real potential in the past few races to return to the top.
Happy with that! Destroyed the floor in q1 so to finish p7 was a good day pic.twitter.com/2xHmtsBeVo
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) July 28, 2023
This is because it is not just Norris that has performed well, but also his rookie teammate, Oscar Piastri. Moreover, Norris’ commitment to McLaren also remains clear because of the long-term contract he signed with them in February last year. Despite many experts having raised concerns with the length of Norris’ deal, the Briton signed a contract that will last until the end of the 2025 season.
Lando Norris once again makes his McLaren loyalties clear
Amid all the rumors going on around his future, Lando Norris seems content to stay at McLaren. This is because he once again made assured of his stay at McLaren in a recent interview by explaining his keenness to win in Papaya.
When asked if a fast McLaren was enough to keep him around, Norris replied, “Yeah, of course. I wanna win races with McLaren, I wanna win it in Papaya, I wanna win championships. I wanna achieve my success and my goals with McLaren“.
“i wanna win races with mclaren. i wanna win it in papaya. i wanna win championships. i wanna achieve my success and my goals with mclaren.” I’M IN TEARS pic.twitter.com/JrgkSUmE6O
— comfort lando (@safeforlando) July 28, 2023
Norris’ reply clearly seems to suggest that he is not thinking about switching teams anytime soon. However, the question is how much more patient is the 23-year-old willing to be before he decides that he needs to make a move. This is because McLaren’s rivals are coming up with offers that he may at some point find very difficult to refuse.
Red Bull could convince Norris to break his $101,000,000 McLaren contract
According to former F1 driver Johnny Herbert, Red Bull have the capability of finding a way to convince Lando Norris to break his $101,000,000 contract with McLaren. As quoted by OLBG, Herbert said that the Milton Keynes outfit could find a way to trigger a performance clause that would make it easier for the Briton to switch teams.
When it comes to the rumors of Norris potentially joining Red Bull, they increased all the more recently because of Sergio Perez’s massive underperformance. This is because prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, the Mexican failed to qualify for Q3 in five consecutive race weekends.
As the pressure continues to increase on Perez, it will be interesting to see if Red Bull replaces him at all, and if they do, then will Norris make a blockbuster move to the side.
