McLaren driver Lando Norris has been sent a warning against potentially joining Red Bull despite interest from Christian Horner to sign the young Briton to race alongside Max Verstappen.
Norris has signed a contract extension with McLaren that will see him stay at the team till at least 2025 which means he has one of the longest deals amongst current drivers.
At the age of 22 and showing such great promise throughout his time at McLaren, Norris has often been tipped to be a future world champion.
However, making a switch to Red Bull and featuring with Max Verstappen as his teammate will cause him “pain”, according to Tom Coronel.
He signed a contract extension with McLaren right at the start of the 2022 season. However, he would have hoped that the team would be more competitive than it has been.
However, amidst changes in regulations, it seems like McLaren has actually regressed from where it was last year.
Even though Norris has been far more dominant than his more experienced teammate Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren has not proved to offer him much of a chance to win races, let alone have even the slightest chance of challenging for the championship.
The last decade has been rather poor for McLaren, who have failed to challenge for the drivers’ championship ever since Lewis Hamilton left the team in 2013.
McLaren has suggested that the best chance of fighting for the title may come in 2024 with a new wind tunnel simulator recently being installed by the team to help them battle the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
Norris himself seems to be patient enough to see whether this will come to fruition and has already spoken about how that season would be decisive in his future plans in the sport.
He recently even spoke about how he may not stay in F1 for a prolonged time period, so it will make sense for him to get the best drive while he’s still here.
Christian Horner recently revealed that Red Bull has tried to pursue Norris, but somehow he always tends tends to renew his McLaren deal the very next day.
Norris should not consider Red Bull: Coronel
Dutch driver Tom Coronel believes Norris should not even consider moving to Red Bull as it would be a terrible move for his career progression.
“Then you have the ideal race team as a team boss, but I’m very sure it will be bad for Norris,” he said.
“He’s going to be in pain anyway! He’s a big star now, so I wouldn’t risk it if I were him.
“He’s definitely strong and very, very talented and good, but Verstappen has all teammates next to him so far crushed himself. Then the value is no longer there at once.
“As an Englishman who is very fast and very good, you have a lot of value.
“Norris is the future of England, and he will not be next to Verstappen in that scenario. I wouldn’t risk it if I were him. That would hurt.”
Read more: Lando Norris doesn’t see personal long-term future in F1 – “I probably won’t be able to come back”