Zak Brown slams Red Bull: “Everyone’s terrified of Max Verstappen”. McLaren CEO Zak Brown criticizes Red Bull in his new book.

Zak Brown has lashed out at Red Bull, claiming the team is dominated by its star driver, Max Verstappen, where “everyone seems afraid of him.”

Zak Brown describes a Red Bull controlled by Verstappen, revealing an internal process that, in his view, has turned the team into a system built primarily to satisfy the Dutch driver.

His comments come from the new book Seven Tenths of a Second, where the McLaren CEO analyzes how certain power structures can deeply influence the dynamics of a Formula 1 team. Brown explains that in Red Bull’s case, management is no longer centralized around leadership, but around maintaining Max Verstappen’s untouchable status within the team.

The process Zak Brown outlines revolves around three key points: the team’s actual leadership, treatment of drivers, and fear of losing the four-time world champion. According to him, Red Bull has progressively shaped its operations around Max Verstappen to ensure his retention and sustain a winning cycle, leading to technical and strategic decisions made solely for his benefit.

“Everyone seems afraid of him”

Zak Brown leaves no room for interpretation. “Max Verstappen is effectively the one who runs Red Bull. I use ‘runs’ on purpose,” he writes in the book. He adds: “Sometimes it seems like Max manages the team, long before Christian Horner was ever considered to be replaced. Everyone appears to be subordinate to him. Everyone seems afraid of him.”

Zak Brown also claims that the car itself is designed exclusively around Max Verstappen’s driving style: “The car is tailored for Max, to a level that makes it very difficult for anyone else to drive it effectively.” He is equally critical of Red Bull’s driver choices: “The team tends not to select a second driver who could threaten Max. Otherwise, Carlos Sainz would have been the obvious choice.”

The most striking point concerns the fear of losing Verstappen: “Max is an extraordinary talent, and Red Bull are terrified of losing him. That’s why they do everything to keep him happy, even if it means building a team around a single man.”

Zak Brown concludes by asserting that this model will never be replicated at McLaren: “That kind of injustice and suppression of competition is not part of our corporate ethics.” His strong stance reignites debate over the true balance of power within Red Bull.