Red Bull have been dealt a blow by McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who revealed that “no number” would convince them to allow Lando Norris to leave.
Brown has effectively labelled Norris as priceless, meaning that the Briton is all but certain to see how the remainder of his contract.
Norris is under contract until the end of 2025, meaning he could move to Red Bull for free when the new power unit regulations are introduced in 2026.
Switching to Red Bull for 2026 is seen by many as a huge risk for Norris, given that the Austrians have never supplied their own power units before.
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Nevertheless, the British driver has been linked to Red Bull several times now over the last few years, with him having admitted that he’d like to be team-mates with Max Verstappen one day.
For that to happen, he’ll need to complete a huge move to the reigning Constructors Champions’, as Verstappen is under contract until the end of 2028.
It doesn’t matter how much Red Bull throw at McLaren, the Woking-based team aren’t prepared to let Norris leave for any figure.
Brown was asked whether Norris would be worth £100 million in the football transfer market, with the American admitting that even if Red Bull offered a nine-figure sum, the 24-year-old isn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t know enough about soccer to know what the economics are!” Brown joked to Sky Sports.
“He’s quite a valuable racing driver, a great asset to the racing team.
“There is no number that we would be interested in trading him for.”
With Norris being one of the quickest and most consistent drivers in the paddock – he claimed seven podiums in the space of 11 races last year – McLaren are going to do whatever they can to retain him for the new engine regulations.
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This will ultimately mean a bumper pay rise presumably; however, Brown is insistent that the team are in a financial position where “anything” can be achieved.
“The resources we have now are exactly where we need to be,” Brown added.
“Resources will not hold us back from achieving anything we need to achieve, drivers included.”