Imagine Lando Norris and Max Verstappen as teammates at Red Bull. In the words of Helmut Marko, “That would be ideal for the public, for TV and journalists. But for the success of the team, it’s better if you have a clear hierarchy.” With just these words, Marko not only confirmed that—spoiler alert!—Verstappen is the number one driver at Red Bull but also that Norris would give the Dutchman a run for his money. 

The best-friends-turned-teammates trope doesn’t end well in most cases, especially with a race-winning car involved. Take Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes or even Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen at Red Bull. Ultimately, there’s always some residual bad blood, no matter how much time passes. Who would want to see Norris and Verstappen go through that? Well, it seems Norris doesn’t because he just pledged his allegiance to McLaren despite Red Bull’s poaching efforts.

Lando Norris and McLaren’s partnership isn’t in immediate danger

When the young Brit joined McLaren in 2019, the Woking squad promised him a championship-winning car in the coming years. 2023 being his fifth season with the team, he still hasn’t won a race, let alone a championship. With 2023 starting out as his worst season in F1 and other teams watching his champion potential go to waste at McLaren, Red Bull showed interest in him. After the British GP, Marko even said, “He is by far the strongest of the young drivers. His youthful nature would also suit him best to Red Bull.”

Despite the enticing opportunity to drive a race-winning car week-in, week-out, Norris has no intention of leaving McLaren before his contract expires at the end of 2025. In an interview with Speedcafe, he said, “My future, so I’ve got two and a half years with McLaren. I’m still giving everything I can. With all these extra people coming in, I’m also excited for the future in what they can bring.” Following McLaren’s technical shake-up after Andrea Stella took over as Team Principal, the team seems to have turned a corner, plotting one of the most significant turnarounds F1 has seen.

This sudden change in fortunes might’ve helped Norris’ decision to continue putting his faith in McLaren. He added, “I tend not to look at the future, like the far future, too much because the near future is exciting.”

Read More: Amid RB’s Attempt to Poach Lando Norris, Zak Brown Turns the Tables With a Target on Max Verstappen

McLaren’s current level of performance might be the best Norris has seen since he joined in 2019. Although Red Bull could be an option post-2025, the 23-year-old won’t be going anywhere before that. And the Woking squad might have his constant criticism to thank for it.

McLaren’s bad form helped its situation with Lando Norris

Before the season started, McLaren set the record straight about the MCL60—it won’t be competitive, at least at the beginning of the season. Despite the heads-up, Norris wasn’t thrilled with the car’s performance at all, which elicited several critiques from him, including how terrible the car was to drive. While discussing if Norris’ comments demotivated the team, McLaren CEO Zak Brown revealed they had quite the opposite effect.

Brown said, “We kind of get happy together. We get grumpy together. So, if [Norris has] made a comment, it’s consistent, it’s motivating. We don’t get down. We fight hard. I mean, if you look at how poor start the season was, that was hard. Meanwhile, underneath the surface, we knew we were seeing great development in the wind tunnel. So it was like publicly taking a battering at the start of the year while knowing underneath things were actually going really well. And the team handled it really well, so we’re motivated.”

Do you feel there’s a chance Lando Norris could jump ship from McLaren to Red Bull post-2025?

WATCH THIS STORY | How Lando Norris Had a Chance to Go to Red Bull But Instead Chose McLaren