Horner Confirms Red Bull Would Have Been Interested In Norris

Sunday, 25 February 2024 at 14:30

In the latest Drive to Survive series season, Chrisitan Horner revealed that Red Bull would be interested in Lando Norris, who could "clearly be a winning driver."

The Drive to Survive series released last Friday (23rd of February) documents on-track and behind-the-scenes details of the 2023 F1 World Championship.

Episode number three was dedicated to McLaren, which found itself in an uneasy situation at the beginning of the season with an uncompetitive car.

It was not easy for McLaren because they had a star driver, Lando Norris, who is considered one of the best on the grid and could fight for the podiums if he had the right car.

However, the Papaya team could not offer him that car at the start of the 2023 season, and rumors started spreading that other teams might try to snatch the 24-year-old from McLaren.

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This episode also featured the team principal of Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner. He suggested he believed in the qualities of the British driver as he said:

"I think Lando is one of the most talented drivers on the grid. In the right car he'd clearly be a winning driver, that's absolutely no doubt about that."

While we now know that McLare was able to offer Norris a much more competitive car starting from the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, it didn't look like it would be possible at the start of that season. Horner continued:

"Can his career take another year of being in the doldrums? A driver's career has a finite amount of time to it, and he needs to make the right decisions for him at the end of the day."

Interestingly, Horner asserted his team would be interested in Norris for the second seat that might be available from the start of the season 2025.

"We’d certainly be interested in him. I think he’d fit in our environment. If he’s delivering he’s not going to be short of choices – he just needs to make the right choice."

Before the start of the 2024 season, the 24-year-old decided to extend his contract with McLaren with a multi-year deal, which means he should continue with the same team at least until the end of the season 2027.

Will this prove to be the right move for the driver in the upcoming years? Or should he have tried to join other teams like Red Bull, Mercedes, or Ferrari? Only time will tell, but Norris stated he believes in his team's ability to produce a Championship contending car.