Helmut Marko has suggested
Lando Norris could've found himself racing for Red Bull's sister team had
McLaren not blocked a ready-made deal. The external
Red Bull Racing advisor has broadcast some hidden details about a deal that would've changed the landscape of
Formula 1.
During the 2024
Formula 1 season, Norris is starting to engage in a World Championship battle. The 24-year-old has a 62-point gap to bridge to
Max Verstappen with eight Grands Prix weekends remaining. The two competitors are really good friends off the track and have flown together after races. However, that relationship was tested after the two crashed during the
Austrian Grand Prix earlier in the season. A week later, both drivers were quick to say everything was smoothed over.
How the Formula 1 landscape could've been different
Instead of being on different teams, it turns out that they could've potentially been teammates. According to Marko, there was a deal on the table that would've seen Norris make his debut at Toro Rosso. A good performance at Toro Rosso [now known as VCARB] often results in a promotion to the team at the front of the grid.
"We had serious discussions and we had a contract ready for Lando Norris. For AlphaTauri, or Toro Rosso at that time. Unfortunately, they [McLaren] found out. They had two contracts and then one was a clause which stopped this cooperation with Lando Norris," Marko revealed on the Inside Line
F1 podcast.
Norris became a
McLaren junior driver in 2017 and replaced then-McLaren driver Fernando Alonso for FP1 at the 2018
Belgian Grand Prix. He made his Grand Prix debut for McLaren at the 2019
Australian Grand Prix and finished just outside the points. At the time, Toro Rosso had Alex Albon and
Daniil Kvyat racing for them, while
Pierre Gasly was trying to impress at Red Bull Racing.