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Johnny Herbert feels that if there is one driver on the current F1 grid whom he would pick to team up with Max Verstappen, it's going to be Lando Norris. Verstappen's teammates have had a rough run alongside him ever since Pierre Gasly joined him in 2019.
Since then, there has been a sequence of drivers that have come in and found themselves unable to match the Dutch driver's level.
After Gasly, Alex Albon also struggled to keep up with Max Verstappen at Red Bull in 2020. He was replaced by Sergio Perez in 202,1 who has also not had too many weekends where he was competitive enough against Max. The 2023 F1 season has completely gone off the rails for the Mexican as he has found it difficult to keep up the momentum after a strong start.
This is where Johnny Herbert feels that a driver like Lando Norris comes into the picture. Speaking to Metro Sport via KingCasinoBonus about Norris being a potential future teammate for Max Verstappen, Herbert said:
"If I was choosing there is only one man, and he is in an orange car at the minute. That is Lando. He has a long-term contract and I don’t know what that says or the details of it."
"But windows of opportunity come up rarely in this sport," he continued. "When they do you have got to be the man on the doorstep and when that door opens you walk right through. You don’t want to be on the doorstep, the door opens and you say, “Hang on I’ve just got to check a couple of things."
Johnny Hebert talks about the risk of teaming up with Max Verstappen
Johnny Hebert also touched on the risk of teaming up with Max Verstappen. Almost every driver since 2019 has struggled to keep up with the Red Bull prodigy and there is certainly an element of risk involved. He said:
"There is another question. Would you really want to risk going up against Max Verstappen? I remember years ago Gerhard Berger said to me when I did my time with Michael Schumacher that he would never have gone up against Michael. So there are certain drivers, who from a career perspective wouldn’t countenance it.”
While the speculation of a move for Lando Norris to a team like Red Bull is interesting, one has to think that the team might not be willing to pair the two drivers together. Having two top drivers in the same team is a tough ask and it is certainly not a great thing for the harmony within the team.
