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Norris to be Verstappen's teammate? 'Red Bull should buy him'
- GPblog.com
Red Bull Racing tried to put Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon alongside Max Verstappen after the departure of Daniel Ricciardo, but little success was achieved. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez has been Red Bull Racing's second driver for two seasons and he is living up to expectations better. However, according to Karun Chandhok, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko would be wise to bring Lando Norris to the team.
With Perez in the ranks, they captured three of the four world titles in 2021 and 2022. Not a bad score, but certainly in the second half of this year's season criticism of the Mexican increased somewhat. Whereas Verstappen was still quite challenged in the first months of 2022, the difference between them only increased, especially after the summer break.
Norris and Red Bull?
Perez is still with Red Bull until 2024. Going into the 2025 season, he will soon be 35 years old and the question is whether the Milton Keynes-based formation will hand out another contract extension then. Chandhok argued that Red Bull should go for Norris, whose commitment runs until 2025 at McLaren. The former Formula One driver believes at Sky Sports Verstappen's team should not wait until 2026.
"I think they [Red Bull] should be going hard to try and buy Lando Norris," Chandhok said, receiving support from presenter Simon Lazenby. "Absolutely, spot on." The analysts do not know whether Norris will want to sit out his contract completely at McLaren at the moment when the racing team fails to become competitive. Driving another three seasons in midfield is something the young Briton would obviously prefer not to do.