Lando Norris’ past comments on the “tense” scenario for a Red Bull driver, and a Helmut Marko statement which left him “speechless”, re-emerged after Marko’s claim that McLaren blocked a past move.
Norris signed with the McLaren driver programme in February of 2017 and made his Formula 1 debut with the team in 2019, but Red Bull senior advisor Marko revealed that they had an offer on the table for Norris, which would have seen him drive for Toro Rosso that year, until McLaren stepped in.
Lando Norris ‘Red Bull situation’ comments resurface
“We had serious discussions and we had a contract ready for Lando Norris, for AlphaTauri or Toro Rosso at that time.” Marko revealed on the Inside Line F1 podcast.
“And unfortunately they [McLaren] found out. They had two contracts and then one was a clause which stopped this cooperation with Lando Norris.”
Marko’s words cast minds back to Norris’ 2020 appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast, where he had claimed F1 life is “tense” for a Red Bull driver, with a ready replacement never far away.
“You would say anyone who is in the Red Bull situation, it’s just tense I think,” Norris had said.
“Because you’ve always got another driver that’s there somewhere. You know the story of how Red Bull works.”
Asked at that time if he had been approached by Red Bull, Norris recalled a 2016 meeting with Marko in Monaco, where he was left “speechless” by the Red Bull driver programme boss’ “Max would know” comeback when quizzing Norris on a Formula Renault car weight, the series which he was crowned champion in that year.
Max Verstappen had made his debut for Red Bull – after a season and a bit with Toro Rosso – at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, winning on debut. Monaco followed the Spanish GP that year.
“I met Helmut Marko actually, after qualifying on pole in Monaco, before being disqualified for having something illegal on the car,” Norris recalled.
“I was in Formula Renault, it was 2016, I was on pole and my manager got a call from Helmut Marko. And I went to the paddock for F1, onto the Red Bull barge and walked in, met him, had a little conversation.
“He just wanted to know a little bit about me I guess and ask me a few questions. How much does a Formula Renault car weigh? I’ve got no idea, I had to come up with something, ‘Yeah, you know, 400 kilos, 426, something like that’. And he’s like, ‘Ahh, okay’. I think I actually even ended up saying, ‘I don’t really know’.
“And then the next thing he said was… I don’t know if I should say it. The next thing he said was: ‘Well Max would know. Max knows everything about the car!’
“And yeah, I didn’t know what to say after that. I can’t really remember what happened… I didn’t say anything, I was just like, ‘Okay, moving on’ kind of thing. I was speechless and that was about that.”
Norris confirmed “no offer” came from Red Bull following that Marko meeting, though he felt it was to his benefit to remain free of F1 affiliation at that point.
“I was in a good position with what I was doing and my manager as well looked after a lot of the conversations and stuff like that,” Norris continued.
“And for the best I think. There might have been something, but I ended up obviously not joining Red Bull, and continuing in the run and situation I was in at the time, which was just doing well in Formula Renault, ended up winning that, being a free guy basically, not getting caught up in the Red Bull… You know once you’re in, you’re on a tight leach with what you can do.
“My manager knew for me the best thing was to be on my own and not be with Red Bull or even another team at the time.
“Because I still had the possibility to go through to F3 and F2 and do that before choosing to join an F1 team.”
Norris has since established himself as a multi-time race winner with McLaren, as an F1 2024 title challenge against Verstappen potentially brews.
Discussion about this post