Lando Norris reckons that Red Bull missed a trick by not opting to pick up his former McLaren team mate Carlos Sainz to drive for the team alongside Max Verstappen in 2025.
Sainz was a former Red Bull development driver and made his F1 debut with the squad's junior Toro Rosso team in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, completing 56 races for them before moving to Renault toward the end of 2017.
Sainz spent two seasons at McLaren alongside Norris before moving to Ferrari, but will be replaced at Maranello by Lewis Hamilton next season. That decision left Sainz looking for a new seat.
It was reported that Red Bull were considering him as a replacement for an underperforming Sergio Perez, but on Monday Sainz announced that he had signed a multi-year deal to drive for Williams instead.
Norris said he felt that Red Bull had missed out, although he admitted that he was biased considering his strong friendships with both Sainz and Verstappen.
“I don't know what their plans are," Norris told Sky Sports F1 when asked what he felt the best decision for Sainz would have been. "But honestly, the easy one is just to say Red Bull.
“He should have gone there in my eyes," Norris insisted. "But I'm biased, I know Carlos and I know Checo and that kind of thing. But Carlos deserves a lot.
"I'm sure a lot of people would say he should have gone to Red Bull potentially, but that's not my decision to make.
“He's one of the best drivers in F1, he's proven that countless times. I'm a good friend of his," he added.
That said, Norris was pleased to know that Sainz would still be on the grid and in the paddock next year, and viewed Sainz' pairing with Alex Albon would make for a strong driver line-up at Grove.
“I'm happy for him that he's still in F1, I'm happy that he got a drive and he can try and bring Williams back up,” Norris said. “Him partnering Alex will be good for F1 at the same time, so that's a good thing."
Speaking on The Race podcast, journalist Edd Straw suggested that Sainz might have been close to going to the new Audi works team in light of Mattia Binotto taking over the project.
"I think Binotto going to Audi could have changed Sainz’s mind, but not on this timeline," Straw suggested. “Had he gone in a lot earlier, Sainz is close with Binotto. There has been a little bit of contact since this appointment was made.
“Had he been able to see really what the plan is and see the wheels turning? Maybe that could have convinced him. But I don’t think if you’re Sainz, no matter how much faith you’ve got in Binotto, that you can throw your lot in with him purely on trust."
In any case, Binotto's predecessor Andreas Seidl had already offered Sainz a lot of money to lure him. “It was a big money, very long-term deal. If he wanted a five-year deal for some huge sum of money, he could have got it.”
As for Norris' own position, he's got a secure spot at McLaren but problems over recent team orders in Hungary have led Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle to speculate on whether the driver is less than happy right now.
“Lando Norris appeared a little unhappy about something all weekend [in Spa] despite solid performances," Brundle wrote this week. "I wondered if the events of Budapest the weekend before were still playing on his mind,”
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