Brown sets out McLaren stance amid talk of a possible move for Verstappen

Silly season is ramping up in Formula 1, with plenty of chatter in Austria about the future of Max Verstappen. The Dutchman holds a long-term deal with Red Bull until the end of 2028, but there are already rumours circulating about where he might end up should he decide to move on earlier than planned.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown was quick to squash any rumours of Verstappen winding up at the reigning World Champions though, with Brown happy that his current driver line up of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is the right one.

“Well, I’d be very surprised if Oscar or Lando went elsewhere as they are very happy,” Brown told Sky Sports F1 in Austria.

“You know, we’ve got contracts but even contracts aside, they are very happy here and we are very happy with them. If for some strange reason, someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub then yeah, of course, Max is a four-time World Champion.”

Both Norris and Piastri are on multi-year deals, with Piastri’s believed to run until the end of 2027. McLaren currently lack the competitiveness they enjoyed last season when they took both titles, but there has been no indication that either of their drivers are anything but happy with the papaya team.

The question was also put to Toto Wolff over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, with the Mercedes Team Principal taking a similar stance to Brown.

“We don’t want to change things,” said Wolff. “We have said also to George [Russell], this is a line up that is good for us – very happy with the two of them… Kimi [Antonelli] is clearly very fast, that’s why we hired him, and George the same.”

As for Verstappen, any distractions from the chatter about his future were firmly put to one side on Sunday when he enjoyed the best race of the season to climb from fifth on the grid to second at the flag, missing out on the win by less than two seconds.

The latest Red Bull upgrade package seemed to pay dividends, with Verstappen comfortably out-pacing the Ferraris and able to fight with the Mercedes cars on merit. He remains some way off in the Drivers’ Championship – 98 points behind Antonelli – but closed a similar gap last year and thus cannot be discounted.

His boss Laurent Mekies was another to make clear that Verstappen is not on the market looking for a new drive, despite the suggestion that his contract contains performance clauses that could give him a get out earlier than 2028.

“Max has made clear to us that he wants to continue with the team. It’s equally clear that he needs a fast car for him to be happy with the team,” Mekies told the press at the Red Bull Ring.

“As I said a few weeks ago, we’re not asking Max every week. He’s pushing with us, he’s helping us to find the right development path for the car.

“It’s not a topic for us. The topic for us is to get the car back to where we want it to be.”

Following his impressive performance in Austria, discussions about Verstappen's future could well fade if he does mount a Championship charge similar to last season, where the Dutchman kept the fight alive all the way to the last race of the year.