Former rival F1 boss ready to irk McLaren with Norris offer

Swapping four wheels for two, former Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner has offered reigning World Champion Lando Norris a test on his team’s KTM MotoGP bike – even though Zak Brown probably won’t be happy about it.

Norris won the F1 2025 Drivers’ title, overturning his 34-point deficit after the Dutch Grand Prix to win by two points with a third-placed finish at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

It’s not ‘papaya’, but it is ‘orange’…

But while Norris has now achieved the ultimate goal for a Formula 1 racer; the big question is what’s next for the Briton?

Norris will remain in the sport next season and beyond after agreeing an “extended multi-year” contract with McLaren in early 2024.

“I’m pleased to confirm the extension of our partnership with Lando on a multi-year contract beyond 2025,” said team principal Andrea Stella at the time. “This reflects the commitment and confidence we have together.”

But could Norris yet be charmed to try his hand at a different series? Potentially MotoGP?

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New Red Bull KTM Tech3 MotoGP team boss Steiner has put that offer on the table, or at the least a one-off test if the reigning F1 champion wants it.

“He is welcome to ride our bike next year,” Steiner said on The Red Flags podcast.

“It has the same colour [as the McLaren], papaya… Okay, it’s orange, but they are very similar.

“He can come and ride it; we will find a way to arrange it.

“It would be something nice for him, although I don’t know if Zak Brown would be happy to see him ride a MotoGP bike.”

Norris has in the past spoken about his love for two-wheel racing.

“I would love to do motorbike stuff. That’s actually where I started,” Norris said back in August.

“So I did horse riding. I hated that. Quad biking, my dad sold it, he said it got stolen, he just sold it because it was too dangerous for me. Then I went to motocross.

“So I love dirt motorsport – motorbikes, motocross, quad bikes, I loved all of that before I ever watched Formula 1, before I ever saw road racing, or anything.

“For me, buggies and desert stuff, I was like ‘this is the coolest stuff in the world.’ So that’s actually what I wanted to do before everything.

“Motorbikes was where a lot of my love started, my hero was Valentino Rossi.”

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