03/07/2025 11:30
Lando Norris insists he does not "care" whether Max Verstappen
stays at Red Bull or departs for a different F1 team. The
Dutchman's existing links to Mercedes have intensified considerably
over the past week, after George Russell confirmed his team was
talking to the four-time F1 drivers' champion. Those remarks
quickly engulfed the F1 paddock at the Austrian Grand Prix, with
Toto Wolff, Christian Horner and Verstappen himself suddenly under
the spotlight. The Red Bull driver has maintained he will be the
architect of his own destiny , but it is unclear which way he is
leaning at present. There is believed to be a clause in his
contract that stipulates he can leave the Milton Keynes-based squad
if he finds himself outside the top three in the drivers' standings
at the summer break. Russell, the driver currently in fourth and
just nine points behind Verstappen, is the person who stands to
lose out the most. He is out of contract with the Brackley team at
the end of the season and his own extension talks have stalled due
to the conversations Toto Wolff is now having with Verstappen. The
media storm surrounding the issue looks set to continue at the
British Grand Prix this weekend. However, Norris, who went
toe-to-toe with Verstappen in the title hunt last term is
unbothered by whatever career moves his friend and rival does or
does not make. "No, I don't really care, to be honest," the
seven-time grand prix winner told Sky Sports F1 at the McLaren
Racing Live event in London. "I don't care where he goes, but I
appreciate Max as a competitor, and I get tough... but I do enjoy
our battles together. "And, like he said, he's the boss of where he
decides to go and then he'll decide to go wherever he thinks is
best."
