Christian Horner risks blowing Red Bull gasket as Lando Norris flirts with move

The Formula One rumour mill whirrs excitedly at all times but when Lando Norris’ manager Mark Berryman was spotted meeting with Red Bull at Silverstone it almost blew a gasket.

It is understandable why Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport adviser, might want to sound out Norris. After standout drives in Austria and at the British Grand Prix behind The Bloke Who Always Wins, Norris is the flavour of the month in F1.

In Sergio Perez, Red Bull have a driver who cannot seem to navigate his way through qualifying and who is so far adrift of his teammate Max Verstappen that it is embarrassing. Norris is young – still – gifted and quick and would bring with him a vast social media army which is an added bonus for any sports organisation in the modern world.

His popularity is channelled through an Instagram account with six million followers but he has a real-life ease of engagement that resonates too. At 23, he is already approaching a century of grands prix and maturing into the driver he always promised to be. He would be quite an asset to any team so no wonder the best team’s eyes are wandering in his direction.

For a flirtation to become a marriage there would be the issue of contracts to sort out – Perez is technically tied to Red Bull through to 2024 and Norris to McLaren until 2025 – but in F1 where there is a will there tends to be a way.

It is not as if Red Bull are short of a few quid to smooth the passage. The question for Marko and the team’s principal Christian Horner is whether they actually need an A-lister-in-waiting like Norris.

Every sports team worth its salt should strive for continual improvement and recruiting the Bristolian would represent an upgrade on Perez on all fronts for Red Bull but it isn’t quite as simple as that.

Having a driver at Red Bull who could actually give Verstappen a race would be unequivocally good as a whole for a sport that has become drearily predictable at the front this season but what is beneficial for F1 is not necessarily beneficial for its powerhouse team.

Competition drives advancement but in an F1 garage it can also prove counter-productive. Norris may be an undemonstrative individual and a good friend of Verstappen’s but he is no shrinking violet on the track.

In allowing the defending champion to come through after taking an early lead at Silverstone he read the reality of their respective cars and did not put up much of a fight but there is no doubt he would go hard at Verstappen if he had the equipment. And that can have consequences.

Those at Red Bull with long memories will hark back to 2010 and the Turkish Grand Prix when teammates Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber – joint leaders of the championship at the time – crashed going head to head.

Vettel span out of the race and Webber had to settle for third behind the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Horner was left shaking his head in disbelief.

Is a repeat of that scenario something they want to risk? Red Bull’s history showed they certainly aren’t averse to change in their second seat but there is a case here of ‘be careful what you wish for’.

Verstappen has a sufficiently full well of self-belief that he likely would not be too bothered who he shares a garage with. He would expect to beat them – and the rest – regardless. But having a duffer who offers no threat to the Dutchman beside him has worked for Red Bull.

Perez may be a lame duck but he still lies second in the drivers’ championship and has harvested sufficient points to put Red Bull well clear at the top of the constructors’ championship.

It is true that if Red Bull had put a stuffed teddy bear in his seat, they would still be leading it – Mercedes, in second, have 203 points while Verstappen has 255 on his own – but they are in clear water as the season prepares to reach its halfway mark this week in Hungary.

If they have both championships in the bag already why would they want to change a winning dynamic – however boring that makes it for the rest of us?