{"id":398758,"date":"2026-01-08T01:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398758\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T01:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:55:14","slug":"lando-norris-handed-helmut-marko-praise-in-red-bull-f1-talks-bombshell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398758\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris handed Helmut Marko praise in Red Bull F1 talks bombshell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has said Lando Norris<\/a> \u201cwould have\u00a0fitted very well to us\u201d as he revealed Formula 1<\/a> contract negotiations with the 2025 World Champion.<\/p>\n

Norris secured his maiden, and McLaren\u2019s first Drivers\u2019 title since 2008, by a slender margin of just two points over Max Verstappen at the Yas Marina Circuit, last year.<\/p>\n

Marko, who himself called it quits on his 20-year tenure with the Milton Keynes-based outfit at the end of the 2025 campaign, has now rendered a telling insight into potential talks with the Briton.<\/p>\n

Norris signed up to the McLaren junior programme in 2017, but could have very well been driving a Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) if fate had decided it that way in 2016. <\/p>\n

Despite these contract negotiations not bearing fruit, it would now appear that a switch was once again on the cards in 2022, before the Briton signed a multi-year deal with the Woking-based team instead. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had, at a very early stage, a negotiation with Lando Norris, and in the end, we didn\u2019t get him,\u201d Marko told Tom Clarkson recently on the Beyond the Grid<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Austrian motorsport veteran went as far as claiming that the 26-year-old would have worked like clockwork if he had signed up for the Red Bull project.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I think he would have fitted very well to us,\u201d he asserted. \u201cBut on the other hand, we can\u2019t have everybody. We are looking for champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaxLando Norris raced Red Bull and won in 2025, but Helmut Marko has revealed he was close to joining the team<\/p>\n

Why Norris chose McLaren over Red Bull <\/p>\n

The start of the ground effects era, in 2022, couldn\u2019t have opened on a worse note for Norris and McLaren. <\/p>\n

CEO, Zak Brown had publicly conceded to have missed its development targets with the MCL36 and started the season last in the competitive pecking order. <\/p>\n

Despite this, Norris chose to stick with the team, who handed him his F1 debut in 2019, over signing a deal with Red Bull, who had a highly competitive package at the time.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, this was a master-stroke as far as Norris\u2019 title credentials are concerned. But back then, it was all about reciprocating the faith McLaren had put into Norris\u2019 career. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more just I was coming to the end of my contract, and it wasn\u2019t like we [Red Bull and I] were talking heavily,\u201d Norris had told Auto Motor und Sport back in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I\u2019ve ever spoken to anyone else, my talks have always been with McLaren first, that\u2019s always how it goes. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as sometimes you might like what could happen, the best thing for me is signing the contract that I have now, just having that confidence that you\u2019re going to be in F1, and the knowledge that you\u2019re going to be in F1 for three, four, five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me that\u2019s like the best feeling, just because it makes you more relaxed, more comfortable in the environment that you\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Ex-F1 star takes aim at McLaren for anomaly in \u2018papaya rules\u2019 orders<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has said Lando Norris \u201cwould have\u00a0fitted very well to us\u201d as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,1737,75926,913,15196,85],"class_list":["post-398758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lando-norris","tag-marko","tag-mclaren","tag-redbull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}