28 September 2023 , 18:18
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Christian Horner admitted he continues to keep close tabs on Lando Norris as he mulls over his options for future Red Bull drivers.
Sergio Perez has a contract for one more season with the team after this. And, despite the Mexican's struggles this season, Horner intends to honour that deal that was signed last year.
He will, however, be considering all the options at his disposal when it comes to his 2025 driver line-up. Max Verstappen is locked in for several more years after that, but it remains to be seen who will be his team-mate after next year.
Norris will naturally be heavily linked. The Brit has held talks with Red Bull before and, as one of the stand-out young talents on the grid, he will continue to draw the attention of the top teams when they make driver decisions.
Team principal Horner admitted the McLaren driver will be in the frame for the seat. "Lando's a great driver – he's a big talent, big personality and of course he’s one of those drivers that you keep an eye on," he told Sky Sports.
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"There are many drivers that you keep an eye on as well. There's a huge generation of drivers out there at the moment that have got a huge amount of talent. Now, being Max's team-mate is never going to be easy and some drivers may be up for that challenge, some may not be.
"But, of course, as well as the drivers we have in-house, we keep an eye on all the driver market. As you can imagine, there's quite a bit of interest from certain sectors about driving a Red Bull car."
As Horner said, Red Bull are not short of in-house options for a Perez replacement should he decide he needs one. Daniel Ricciardo has made no secret of his desire to return to the seat that was once his, while Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are among the others on the books who want to progress in their careers.
Horner would prefer to select from that talent pool if he can, but performance will be is first priority. He added: "Max is operating at such a level that his confidence, his commitment, his talent is absolute at the moment and it's difficult to envisage somebody beating him in the same equipment.
"But there's some great talent out there and, of course, what we want is the best two drivers we can possibly field. So, ideally, that will come from within the talent pool that we have and, if we don't believe there's that capability, we will look outside of that as to who's available."