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Seidl Reveals McLaren ‘Agreement’ With Mercedes in Case of Norris’ F1 Race Ban

Published 07/12/2021, 7:32 AM EDT

Poor old Lando Norris is in a bit of a quandary. On one hand, he is in the form of his life with three podiums this season. However, the other end of the scale is that he has been a little bit naughty. To be precise, the McLaren driver has picked up penalty points like a child filling his pockets with candy.

The bad news is that the penalty point-picking frequency has resulted in him accumulating 10 points. If he gets two more, then he faces the possibility of copping a one-race ban. With Daniel Ricciardo not exactly firing on all cylinders, the team have a problem on their hands.

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Recently, team boss Andreas Seidl spoke about the game plan in the event that Norris gets a ban. According to the German, they may have to dip into the Mercedes driver pool. He said, “We have an agreement with Mercedes regarding reserve drivers.“

Who is on the cards to head to McLaren?

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Apparently, McLaren are eyeing Mercedes Formula E driver Stoffel Vandoorne. It also helps that he is a former McLaren driver himself, having raced with the team in 2017 and 2018. In the unlikely event that Vandoorne is unavailable, Seidl is also open to recruiting the likes of Nico Hulkenberg.

Vandoorne competed in the recently concluded Formula E double-header in New York. Aside from a win in Rome and a podium in Valencia, he has not enjoyed a good season. Nevertheless, he will be free because he has no Asian Le Mans Series racing duties. However, he does have a World Endurance Championship race this weekend at Monza.

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He will also be thankful that the 24 Hours of Le Mans is not clashing with the Belgian Grand Prix. There could be a clash during the Mexican and Brazilian Grand Prix weekends, but it should hopefully not come to that stage.

McLaren F1 Name the Likely Replacement of Lando Norris In Case of Race Ban

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.

Seidl Reveals McLaren ‘Agreement’ With Mercedes in Case of Norris’ F1 Race Ban

Who is on the cards to head to McLaren?

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