'No Number' That McLaren Would Be Interesting In Trading Norris For

Wednesday, 17 January 2024 at 19:00

Lando Norris has become one of the most lucrative drivers on the grid that multiple teams will aim for, but Zak Brown suggested there is no number for which he would trade the racer.

The CEO of the McLaren team, Zak Brown, lately suggested one of his drivers - Lando Norris, has become a "hot property" in the driver market, and his team will need to lock him down as soon as possible.

The CEO is currently very satisfied with both drivers in their lineup, and as it stands, he would like to keep both of them long-term.

The problem is that Norris wants to compete in the Championships, and the Papaya team has not been able to offer him a championship-contending car for the last five years.

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Red Bull has been the most dominant car in recent two seasons by far and would potentially have more to offer to the 24-year-old in terms of performance. However, Brown told Sky Sports he does not think that is the only important thing.

"Anytime you have a race car that won 21 races last year it's pretty hard to say that wouldn't be a pretty exciting race car to drive, but I think it's more than just a car."

The British driver has been with McLaren ever since his first race in F1, and he has become a part of the family. Brown believes the Papaya team remains the best option for Norris.

"It's trajectory, it's environment, it's family, and I think Lando's culture and who he is fits in really well inside McLaren. I think this is, of course, the best home for him of all the other nine teams, not just Red Bull."

The best soccer players in the World earn hundreds of millions of dollars. Asked whether Norris would be in the same category as a soccer player, Brown replied:

"I don't know enough about soccer to know what all the economics are, but I would imagine he quite a valuable racing driver. He's a great asset to the racing team so there is kind of no number we'd be interested in trading him for."

As Norris becomes more and more attractive in the driver market, he will receive many lucrative offers that McLaren will have to overhaul. The team's CEO asserted money would not be a problem if it came to that.

"The resources we have right now are exactly where we need to be. We are a profitable racing team, which is great. We run at the cap and resources will not hold us back from achieving anything that we need to achieve, drivers included."