Red Bull’s Dr. Helmut Marko reveals they almost signed Lando Norris with a contract prepared for him to join Toro Rosso.
Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko has disclosed how close the team was to signing Lando Norris.
The 81-year-old detailed that a contract was prepared for the British driver to sign with Toro Rosso before he joined F1 with McLaren, where he was part of the junior program.
Red Bull runs a highly productive and successful young driver academy and has always preferred to promote internally. However, the team has occasionally sought drivers outside its talent pool, such as Sergio Perez or Mark Webber.
In recent years, this was also the case with Norris, who twice flirted with Red Bull but has so far chosen to stay with McLaren.
The 24-year-old is now in a title battle with Max Verstappen.
“As you all know, we had serious discussions with Lando about joining F1, but to reveal how close it was, we had a contract prepared for Lando Norris for AlphaTauri, or Toro Rosso at that time, for 2019,” Marko revealed on the Inside Line podcast.
“And unfortunately, McLaren found out… and there was a clause they were able to activate just in time which ended this cooperation with Lando Norris.”
The Austrian admits that in 15 years, there have been very few drivers outside the Red Bull pathway that have been courted.
“I can count them on one hand. Another example? Before we started winning, I don’t know exactly which year, I believe it was in 2008, we discussed with Fernando Alonso, but he didn’t take us seriously, I suppose, and so it didn’t happen.”
“But otherwise, we are proud to have produced our two world champions, Vettel and Verstappen.”
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Red Bull Nearly Signed Norris, Had Contract Ready Red Bull Nearly Signed Norris, Had Contract Ready
