Zak Brown has made no secret of his admiration for Max Verstappen, revealing that several conversations with the four-time Formula 1 world champion changed his personal perception of the Red Bull driver. There is currently no deal or active move taking Verstappen to McLaren, and his recently extended Red Bull contract runs through 2030, but Brown’s comments make clear that he would welcome the opportunity to work with the Dutchman if circumstances ever changed.
The McLaren Racing CEO does not simply admire Verstappen’s achievements behind the wheel. Brown says he deliberately wanted to get to know him better away from the track and came away impressed by both the driver and the person, even choosing a description he admits he would never previously have associated with Verstappen: “charming”.
Zak Brown reveals admiration for Max Verstappen
When Zak Brown speaks about leading Formula 1 figures, his comments tend to attract attention. In the case of Verstappen, however, his assessment goes considerably further than a conventional acknowledgement of one of the sport’s leading drivers.
Brown revealed that he spoke with Verstappen several times last summer simply because he wanted to understand him better on a personal level.
“I spoke with Max several times last summer. Simply because I wanted to get to know him better. If I had to use just one word to describe him today, it would be a word that, before those conversations, would never have occurred to me. That word is: charming.”
“I bet nobody who doesn’t know him well would describe him that way. But I’m genuinely impressed by him. A racer in the truest sense of the word.”
The most striking part of Brown’s assessment is precisely that description. His appreciation is not based only on Verstappen’s speed, racecraft or four world championships. Instead, Brown says meeting him personally altered the impression he had formed from watching him compete from the outside.
Max Verstappen remains under contract with Red Bull until 2030
The obvious obstacle to any future McLaren possibility is Verstappen’s contract. The Dutchman recently signed an extension keeping him with Red Bull until the end of the 2030 Formula 1 season, apparently closing down speculation about an imminent move elsewhere.
Verstappen has built the defining years of his career with Red Bull, winning all four of his world championships with the Milton Keynes team. He has also repeatedly emphasised the importance of loyalty and continuity when discussing why he chose to extend his stay.
For now, therefore, there is no concrete McLaren move to report. No agreement has been announced and Verstappen remains committed to Red Bull. His new deal followed months of speculation in which he had held discussions involving both Mercedes and McLaren before ultimately deciding to remain where he is.
Could Verstappen’s Red Bull contract ever allow a McLaren move?
A long-term Formula 1 contract does not necessarily mean every possible future scenario is permanently closed. Driver agreements can contain performance-related conditions, clauses and mechanisms that become relevant depending on sporting results.
Verstappen’s previous Red Bull agreement was widely reported to contain performance-related exit provisions. However, the precise terms of his new 2030 contract are not public, meaning it would be wrong to assume that any particular clause remains active or could definitely be used in the future.
That leaves only a theoretical opening for McLaren rather than evidence of an impending transfer. Verstappen is a Red Bull driver and the exact exit conditions surrounding his new contract remain private.
For McLaren to become a realistic destination, the sporting and contractual circumstances would first have to change significantly.
Why McLaren could still appeal to Verstappen
Verstappen is familiar with what McLaren has built in recent seasons and appears to appreciate one characteristic in particular: its ability to respond when development moves in the wrong direction.
For a driver of Verstappen’s level, outright speed at one particular moment is not the only consideration. A team’s technical structure, its ability to recognise problems and the speed with which it can correct them can be equally important over a multi-year programme.
McLaren has demonstrated that capacity in recent seasons, developing into one of Formula 1’s strongest technical and organisational structures after previously enduring difficult periods. The team is now firmly established among the championship’s leading operations, with its current progress tracked throughout the McLaren Formula 1 programme.
Gianpiero Lambiase adds another intriguing connection
There is another connection that inevitably makes any long-term Verstappen-McLaren discussion more interesting. Gianpiero Lambiase, the race engineer who has worked alongside Verstappen through the most successful period of his Red Bull career, is already confirmed to be moving to McLaren.
Lambiase will join the Woking team as Chief Racing Officer when his existing Red Bull contract ends, with his arrival due no later than 2028. His future position will therefore be considerably broader than his current role as Verstappen’s race engineer.
The long-standing relationship between Lambiase and Verstappen has been forged through years of victories, championships and intense race weekends. That does not mean Lambiase’s move is connected to any future Verstappen transfer, but it is an inevitable personal link between the Dutchman and a team Brown openly admits he would like to see him drive for one day.
No Verstappen-McLaren deal, but Brown is keeping the possibility alive
The distinction is important. Admiration should not be turned into a transfer story that does not currently exist. Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull through 2030 and McLaren has announced no operation to sign him.
At the same time, it would be difficult to describe Brown’s public admiration as indifference. He sought out conversations with Verstappen, wanted to know him better and emerged sufficiently impressed to describe him as “charming” and a racer in the purest sense.
McLaren also has its own established driver structure and is not currently searching publicly for Verstappen. Brown’s comments are therefore best viewed as an open expression of interest in what could happen only if the circumstances changed in future.
For now, there is no negotiation, no agreement and no indication that Verstappen intends to walk away from the Red Bull career he has just committed to extending.
But Formula 1 careers rarely follow a perfectly predictable path. Relationships can develop long before contracts are signed, and Brown has made it clear that his professional admiration for Verstappen already exists. Whether it ever becomes anything more will depend on circumstances that, today, remain entirely hypothetical.
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