Formula 1 team would turn down £50m offer from Red Bull for 24-year-old driver

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His contract may not expire until the end of 2025, but Lando Norris is still one of the most desirable drivers on the Formula 1 market, and an offer from Red Bull might not be out of the question this year under the right circumstances.

McLaren will be pinning their hopes on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to kick on from their positive end of 2023.

However, speaking on The Race Podcast, Scott Mitchell-Malm and Edd Straw were discussing the possibility of the 24-year-old making a dramatic switch to the most dominant team on the grid.

Transfers don’t happen very often in Formula 1, with teams typically waiting until the end of a driver’s contract before bringing them in.

The last driver on the grid to move that way was Piastri when he was poached from Alpine’s academy to join McLaren.

It’s his teammate Lando Norris who could be the subject of an offer from Red Bull if Christian Horner and Helmut Marko decide the team needs to go in a completely different direction.

Sergio Perez’s deal runs out at the end of 2024 and although there are a host of drivers within their set-up that would love his seat, they may not be the perfect fit.

The 24-year-old Brit might be that man, but it looks set to be almost impossible to prise him away from Andrea Stella’s outfit before the end of this contract.

Red Bull would need to make huge offer to secure Norris

Discussing who could be Verstappen’s teammate heading into 2025, Mitchell-Malm said: “Can I just throw in quickly because I think we need to discuss it even if we dismiss it?

“Can we completely rule out Red Bull just paying through the nose to buy out Lando Norris’s contract?

His colleague Edd Straw replied: “I don’t think we can rule out them trying to do that, but how much would McLaren need to do that? Maybe if they got a shedload of money.

Michell-Malm suggested: “I think £50m plus.”

To which Straw dismissed that notion and said: “Even then, why? I can’t see McLaren being willing to sell Norris for that amount, I think they have to sell much higher.

“I think Red Bull would be willing to pay serious money but I just look at it and think, yes [Oscar] Piastri has made a great start, he’s still got some progress to make on his race performance in terms of tyre management, that’s perfectly normal for a rookie and I’m sure he will.

“I just think the tariff for McLaren would be so high I guess it’s the last year of Norris’s contract, that could play into it.”

An offer of around £50m from Red Bull for Norris would certainly have McLaren thinking.

However, even with that money, there isn’t an available driver on the grid that could replicate what he’s capable of in that car.

McLaren in the future may feel comfortable with Piastri leading the team but at this stage is much too early for the Australian to be put in that position.

Verstappen and Norris are close and the Dutchman admitted he would hire him if he was a team principal right now.

So many permutations and considerations need to be made before then, with the beginning of the season still a month away.