Amid McLaren’s Disastrous Season, Lando Norris’ Faint Hopes for a Brighter F1 Future Tipped to Be Vanishing Away

Everything that could have gone wrong for McLaren has gone wrong. Starting with the Bahrain GP, disappointment has loomed over the team’s head and doesn’t seem to be running away as seen by the team’s display in Miami. So far, it has just 14 points to its name in five rounds, a whopping 64 less than the fourth-placed Ferrari. And its star driver, Lando Norris, still looking for his shot at the championship and first F1 win, leads its charge with just 10 points.

The Briton has been really struggling since the start of the season. He, much like the team, believed the Azerbaijan GP would be a game-changer for them. Although Norris did manage to get two points there, the upgrades he brought then appeared to have disappeared the following weekend. The team seems to have lost track and looks to rebuild itself for the 2025 season with a new wind tunnel and recruitment spree. For now, however, the chances of a comeback are significantly low. All this has thus sprouted rumors of Norris leaving McLaren for other top teams. The names thrown into the pot have been those of Red Bull and Mercedes.

Analyzing the team’s run and Lando Norris’ mindset after the race, former F1 driver Johnny Herbert and F1 presenter Billy Monger shared their thoughts. On an episode of their podcast Lift the Lid, Herbert, suppressing Norris’ hopes, said, “We all want him to do better than he’s doing at the present time, but that’s just where the car is not allowing him to do that. So then you sort of say, ‘Okay, so it’s not really happening here. Maybe I should start looking elsewhere.’ But then there is that question mark. Where, if that is the thought there, where would you go?”

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He concluded his thought by posing a question about Lando’s ability and asking what the McLaren driver can offer to secure a seat on a top team. Leave alone if it is even available at all. Moreover, his lack of extraction of a decent result, or at least better than his teammate by some margin, is further hurting his credibility.

Lando Norris’ Red Bull chances hampered by Sergio Perez’s success

The Lando Norris and Red Bull rumors have been strong ever since both made the talks between the two public. The Briton even had talks with the Milton Keynes-based outfit before extending his contract with McLaren, where he supposedly has no way out now. However, the dynamics are changing rapidly as Red Bull, despite the fierce championship battle, is able to extract the best results week in and week out.

Looking at Red Bull as an option for Norris, Monger remarks, “So if you’re Christian Horner, as long as those two cars are finishing first and second every GP, the odds that Christian is going to sort of ruin that team dynamic by throwing a Lando Norris into the mix with Max. With that, but just it gets more and more further away from being a possibility.”

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Red Bull has contracted Sergio Perez until the end of next season. The rest of the grid looks packed, too. But the biggest hurt for Norris at McLaren is the lack of an exit clause. That would surely be enough to keep him in Woking until the end of 2025.