Mclaren driver Lando Norris has had a bit of an up-and-down season. While the team got off to a rocky start, Norris was recently able to bring home back-to-back podiums before the summer break began!
On the other hand, Mercedes pilot Lewis Hamilton has had a more impressive impact this season by nabbing multiple podiums, a pole position, and scoring important points for his team. However, despite this apparent difference, Helmut Marko, special advisor to Red Bull, has named Lando Norris as his preferred option as a hypothetical replacement for Perez among the two Brits.
Helmut Marko talks about working with Lando Norris in Red Bull
Reports of Marko’s fondness for the British Mclaren driver Lando Norris had surfaced about a month ago. Norris’ impressive back-to-back podiums at Silverstone and Austria this year have not been left unnoticed by the Austrian team advisor. Norris’ defense against a charging Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone, one of the most notable moments of the race, was publicly noted by Marko.
Marko further speaks on other factors that contribute to Norris’ suitability to be Max’s teammate. One of them is Max’s prevalent friendly relationship with Lando Norris. The two have links that date back to their karting days and have remained on good terms through pretty much everything.
This is seen by the Red Bull advisor as the foundation of a threatening partnership. Even Norris’ youth could be a contributing factor to this claim by Marko.
However, despite this fondness Marko has for Norris, he is still under a contract with Mclaren until 2025. Acknowledging this, Marko has maintained that Norris still stands as the strongest candidate to replace Perez as Max’s teammate. This is after factoring in that on the other hand, Lewis is (as of now) still out of a contract for 2024!
Helmut Marko snubs Lewis Hamilton’s chances of driving for Red Bull
While citing Norris as an option for Red Bull, Marko has also publicly disregarded Lewis Hamilton as a possible replacement for Perez, completely eradicating the possibility of a Max-Lewis dream duo!
Helmut Marko says he can imagine Lando Norris driving for #RedBull 👀
“With Norris, I can well imagine that, with Hamilton I have a harder time. In principle, we never have a team order or anything like that…”#F1 #Formula1 #McLaren #LN4 pic.twitter.com/O0vcQ0Xhmo
— McLaren F1 News 🏴🇦🇺 (@TheMcLarenZone) August 13, 2023
However, Marko clarifies that the situation is not due to a lack of skill on the part of Hamilton, but is in fact due to fear of a poor relationship between the two affecting the overall team atmosphere. Citing Senna and Prost as an example, he says,
“With Norris, I can well imagine that, with Hamilton, I have a harder time. In principle, we never have a team order or anything like that. But the overall team atmosphere and competitiveness must not suffer. If you have two such stars, we take the past, Senna Prost did not go well.”
Between Lewis and Lando, who would you like to see partner up with Max at Red Bull? Comment what you think down below!
