Zak Brown insists he is confident his McLaren team will be able to keep hold of Lando Norris despite rumours linking the Brit with a move to Red Bull.
Norris is currently contracted until 2025, having penned a fresh extension at the start of this year. By then, the ambitious young racer expects to have had the chance to compete for race wins on a regular basis, targeting 2024 as the season in which McLaren will be able to be that competitive.
If the team cannot match his ambition, he has hinted that he could look elsewhere. Having admitted to talking with Red Bull prior to signing his latest McLaren deal, rumours continue to persist that he could be tempted by an offer if he grows impatient with his current situation.
McLaren chief executive Brown believes his team is on target to make sure it will not become an issue. When asked if he is worried about losing Norris, the American replied: "No, because I'm convinced we're going to give him a winning car.
"We have a long-term contract with him. I think he feels very comfortable within the team. Other than obviously the pressure we put on ourselves, because we don't want to just give him a winning car, we want to give us a winning car. So, I think we've got a runway to get there.
"He knows the journey we're on. He has bought into the journey that we're on, and I think it'd be early to be worried about it." Regardless of McLaren's wishes, Karun Chandhok is among those who have urged Red Bull to pull out all the stops to sign the Brit.
"I think they should be going hard to try and buy Lando Norris," said the Sky Sports pundit. "After agreeing with that viewpoint, commentator David Croft pointed out that Norris, 23, would be a long-term option for a team with Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo, both in their 30s, on the books.
"They're both capable of winning races but, to me, they win races in very different ways," said Croft. "I hate to say this, I think Daniel is a terrific bloke, but he is not the future for Red Bull – not by any stretch of the imagination, mainly because of age.
"When Max [Verstappen] spoke at the end of the season and talked about potentially stopping at the age of 31, that's a big revelation to me. He's already thinking about the time he stops racing. If he's thinking that, then Red Bull should be thinking it too. Personally, I'd be trying to identify somebody else to come in in 2024 if Checo is not the answer."
