Lando Norris has been warned against making a “foolish” decision to leave McLaren, by ex-Formula 1 driver David Kennedy.
Norris’ future has been a big talking point recently, with the British driver being heavily linked to Red Bull once again.
Red Bull have seemingly always had an interest in the McLaren star, and even held talks with him as recently as last season, prior to him signing a new long-term contract.
The contract he signed in 2022 has ensured that he’ll remain with McLaren until at least the end of 2025, with CEO Zak Brown having stressed that he has no exit clauses.
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Despite this, rumours of Norris replacing Sergio Perez in 2025 have continued, even though it’s effectively impossible until at least 2026.
What has stoked the rumours is that Norris and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen have both insisted that they’d like to be team-mates one day, something which is more likely to happen at Red Bull than McLaren.
Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has even admitted that he can “imagine” Norris racing for the Austrians, suggesting that it’s something which will happen in the future.
However, Kennedy has warned Norris against leaving the Woking-based team who are currently on an upward trajectory, ever since they introduced a significant upgrades package at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Prior to Austria, McLaren’s season was abysmal; however, they’ve gone onto become genuine podium contenders.
Should they continue to improve at such a tremendous pace, then Norris could be fighting for victories in the remaining eight races this season.
“You’re looking at one of the biggest teams that there are,” Kennedy told PlanetF1.com.
“A driver also will get a comfort factor for the people that work around him.
“If he skips the team now… he knows they’re on the ascendancy, they know they’re moving forward. It’s very difficult for a driver and I think it’s sometimes a bit foolish to think that you can step out of that.”
Kennedy has used two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso as an example of what can go wrong by switching teams, something the Spaniard did very often.
Alonso has had a tendency to switch teams at the wrong time, with Lewis Hamilton having won the 2008 Drivers’ Championship for McLaren just a year after the Spaniard left the side.
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It was a similar story in 2015, when Ferrari had a very competitive package, only for Alonso to have jumped ship to the woeful McLaren-Honda at the end of 2014.
“We’ve seen [Fernando] Alonso make that mistake so many times – step out when a team had begun to come around,” he said.
“He’d have been many times a World Champion if he stuck with his guns and let what was happening develop around him.”