New Norris F1 contract a 'high priority' for McLaren amid Red Bull interest

McLaren already have Oscar Piastri signed up to 2026 following his impressive rookie F1 campaign and the team are now aiming to persuade Norris to commit his long-term future to Woking after a resurgent 2023 season.

The 24-year-old Briton is under contract until the end of 2025 but has been subject to interest from Red Bull, with team principal Christian Horner admitting his side have “spoken to Lando a couple of times over the years”. 

Red Bull have a big decision to make over who will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2025, and with Sergio Perez under pressure to keep his seat as his contract runs down, Norris has been earmarked as a likely target.

Speaking at the launch of McLaren’s 2024 livery, CEO Zak Brown outlined his desire to keep his driver line-up unchanged for the foreseeable. 

"My primary role is to get the right people in place and give him the right resources and support. That is Andrea and the entire team,” Brown said. 

"When you have desires of getting back to winning the World Championship, you need the management, technology and infrastructure and of course the two grand prix drivers. We have all those in place.

"We have Lando under contract for another couple of years. Of course, we are in dialogue with him on a continuous basis.

"He is starting to think through [his future], as we are - 2026 is not far away and we recognise that being able to retain Lando and Oscar is a key element and something that is a high priority for us.”

Asked whether he is worried about Red Bull making a move to try and sign Norris, Brown replied: “I have a belief, whether it's employees, drivers, sponsors, that it's our job to take care of them and for them to want to be at McLaren. 

“So I tend to focus on making sure that McLaren is the best environment and people want to be with us, because you ultimately can't control external approaches to those various people.

“I’m very confident in the relationship we have with Lando, I know he's very excited for this year, was very impressed with what he saw in the second half of last year, loves working with Andrea and everyone on the team.

“All we can keep doing is keep giving him the environment he wants to be in and then I’m confident he’ll stick around, as opposed to trying to kind of ‘sell’ against the competition. That’s never been my way."