Christian Horner, the Team Principal of Red Bull Racing, has openly acknowledged that Red Bull is keeping tabs on the contract negotiations between McLaren and their star driver, Lando Norris. Norris currently has a contract with McLaren that extends until the end of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Red Bull is facing an impending decision regarding their driver lineup after the 2024 season due to Sergio Perez’s inconsistent performance. While Perez showed promise at the start of the 2023 season with two wins in the first four Grand Prix races, his title aspirations quickly faded. He faced ongoing challenges, with the Japanese Grand Prix being particularly troublesome, where he retired twice.

Despite Perez’s struggles, Red Bull clinched the constructors’ championship thanks to Max Verstappen’s victory in the Japanese GP, with Norris finishing second and Oscar Piastri, another McLaren driver, in third. Verstappen also leads the drivers’ championship standings by a significant margin.

In terms of points, Verstappen has contributed a substantial portion to Red Bull’s total, amassing 400 of the team’s 623 points in the 2023 season. Perez, on the other hand, trails far behind in the drivers’ championship and has only achieved podium finishes in four of the last eight Grand Prix races. Since the Canadian GP, he has only accumulated 97 points, while Verstappen has secured 205.

In contrast, Lando Norris, 23 years old and driving for McLaren, has demonstrated remarkable performance. He benefited from McLaren’s first major upgrade package to secure a fourth-place finish in Austria. Since then, he has claimed four podium finishes, with second-place finishes in Britain, Hungary, Singapore, and Japan. Over the past eight Grand Prix races, Norris has earned 103 points.

Perez’s struggles, especially in qualifying, have raised questions about his future with Red Bull. His current contract with the team is set to expire at the end of 2024, and he faces tough competition within the team from drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson, and Yuki Tsunoda.

Christian Horner, Red Bull’s Team Principal, has praised Lando Norris as a great driver with substantial talent and personality. He acknowledges that Norris is a driver worth monitoring, but he also points out that there are many talented drivers in Formula 1’s current generation.

Horner emphasized that being Max Verstappen’s teammate is a challenging role, and some drivers may be willing to take on that challenge while others may not. He clarified that, apart from their in-house drivers, Red Bull keeps an eye on the entire driver market, as there is considerable interest in driving for the team.

“Lando’s a great driver,” Horner told Sky Sports. “He’s a big talent, big personality and, of course, he’s one of those drivers that you keep an eye on. But there’s many drivers that you keep an eye on, as well.”

“There’s a generation of drivers out there at the moment that have got a huge amount of talent. Now, being Max’s teammate is never going to be easy and some drivers may be up for that challenge, some may not be.”

“But, of course, as well as the drivers we have in-house, we keep an eye on all the driver market. As you can imagine, there’s quite a bit of interest from certain sectors about driving a Red Bull car.”

It has been reported by Journalist Christian Menath, that Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko can envision a scenario where Norris joins Red Bull Racing alongside Verstappen. However, for this to happen, Horner would need to present McLaren with a highly attractive offer to entice Norris away from their impressive driver lineup, which also includes Oscar Piastri.