F1 News: Former Ferrari Manager Plays Into Charles Leclerc Mercedes Rumours With Future Speculations
Former Ferrari team manager and F1 journalist Peter Windsor claims if Lando Norris could move to the team if Charles Leclerc moves to Mercedes.
There has been a lot of speculation over the possibility of Leclerc making the move to the Silver Arrows with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton's contract due to end at the end of the 2023 season.
However unlikely this is to happen at the end of 2023 as both Hamilton and Mercedes have expressed interest in extending the contract, this could still be an option after the extension as the 38-year-old has hinted he is not too far away from retirement.
Windsor has spoken about the options for Ferrari and Mercedes if this was to happen. He explained:
“I would imagine [Toto Wolff] is going to try and go for Leclerc.
“It would be a mess, probably, putting Leclerc with George Russell. But if he’s prepared to put Russell with Hamilton, he’s obviously going to be prepared to put him with Leclerc.
“Let’s assume Leclerc went from Ferrari to Mercedes to replace Lewis, which is not a completely stupid assumption, what then would Ferrari do? I think they would go massively all out to get Lando.
Norris has been with McLaren since his F1 debut in 2019 and is currently in contract with them until the end of the 2025 season. Windsor continued:
“And I think Lando, at that point, would find it quite hard to say no, putting aside all the contractual stuff - because I do think that at that level, they can afford to [solve contractual problems].
“I think Lando has got half a chance at Ferrari, if Leclerc goes somewhere to replace Lewis – which would be good, wouldn’t it?
“Lando will be thinking about what’s going to happen next. And the heads up that Lando needs is from Lewis, isn’t it?
“He needs Lewis to say: ‘This is the date [I will retire] and then Lando can get to work on what he’s going to do.”
Windsor went on to question how the conversation with McLaren CEO Zak Brown would go if this was to play out. He said:
“Would [Zak Brown] stand in [Norris’] way? Lando would probably say to Zak: ‘Everything has been great, we had Daniel, everything was fine, and then you put Piastri in the car and it’s a mess now. I didn’t want it, you’ve done it, I’m out of here!’
“That’s probably what he would say.”