McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed that “good conversations” are being held with Lando Norris, in an attempt to keep the British driver beyond his current contract.
Whilst the 23-year-old still has two years on his deal, he is attracting significant interest, particularly from Red Bull.
Norris is currently contracted until the end of 2025, meaning he could depart for Red Bull in 2026 for the new power unit regulations.
With him not having an exit clause in his deal, the only way he could depart McLaren before 2025 is if a team presumably pays a mouth-watering fee.
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The British driver is receiving significant interest because of just how incredible he’s been as McLaren’s leader.
As well as being a strong leader, Norris has consistently shown that he has the pace to compete at the front, as proven by the fact that he’s claimed four podiums in the last seven races.
This has simply intensified rumours of a potential future switch to Red Bull, with him and Max Verstappen having admitted that they’d like to be team-mates one day.
As well as that, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has stated that he can “imagine” Norris racing for Red Bull.
The Austrians actually held talks with Norris before he signed his extension with McLaren last season, something which could potentially happen once again.
This is because Norris and the Woking-based team are talking about further extending his deal, something Stella revealed is going positively.
“We are certainly having conversations with Lando,” Stella confirmed.
“They are good conversations, we are happy with how these conversations are going.”
Similar to what McLaren have recently done with Oscar Piastri, Stella is keen to prove to Norris that the British team are the side to be with.
McLaren want people to “stay with us” rather than have to look elsewhere, with Stella seemingly being confident that if the team continue to make strides in the right direction, then Norris will agree to remain.
“With Lando, we are doing exactly the same, trying to prove as much as possible on track that what we say [is realised], and trying to create a sense of this is going to continue over the coming years,” Stella stated.
“I will be at discomfort, myself, having a conversation with a driver where I’m trying to persuade him playing cards that I don’t have in my hands.
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“I don’t want to find myself in a situation where a driver said, ‘Hey, you said this would have happened, it’s not happening’. I don’t want to be in this position.
“So my conversations, Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO’s] conversations, they are genuine assessments of facts to the best of our knowledge.
“We don’t need to buy people in, we want people to give us the vote of confidence and stay with us, genuinely, truly believing in the journey together with McLaren.”