New details about who initiated Max Verstappen’s shock McLaren F1 talks revealed

Max Verstappen’s management team initiated the talks with McLaren about the four-time Formula 1 world champion’s future, it has been claimed. 

The subject of Verstappen’s future has been thrown back into the spotlight after British news outlet The Daily Mail reported on the eve of the Austrian Grand Prix that the Dutchman’s camp had held “preliminary talks” with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown about a potential deal. 

According to Sky Sports F1, it was Verstappen’s team who made the first move, rather than reigning world champions McLaren. 

“I learned that this did indeed happen, it was instigated by Max Verstappen’s people,” Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater revealed on Monday. 

“I suppose the first question you would want to ask is why would Max Verstappen want to go to McLaren? They are not doing that well this year, but Max knows they are capable of building a winning car. They can turn things around quickly. 

“He knows the kind of personnel they have, they are very well led with Andrea Stella and Zak Brown and they’ve got excellent engineers. They poached quite a few from Red Bull. 

“They are also taking his race engineer, a big person in Max’s racing life, Gianpiero Lambiase for 2028 at the earliest. So potentially they are an attractive proposition.

“When you factor in as well that maybe there isn’t a space at Mercedes so much right now, because they are looking at Kimi Antonelli and thinking ‘he’s leading the championship, would I really want to put Max Verstappen alongside him and potentially damage his career in its fledgling stages?’

“George Russell was saying ‘100 percent I will be staying at Mercedes next season, so he’s got a cast iron contract. Maybe there isn’t a space at Ferrari. Is there anywhere else where Max would realistically go? Probably not. So McLaren might be the best potential.”

Reports in the Dutch media quoted Verstappen’s management as saying that their driver's preference is to remain with Red Bull, but warned he “wasn’t born to race in the midfield”. 

Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028 but is understood to have an exit clause in his current deal that would enable him to join another team in 2027 if he is outside of the top two positions in the drivers’ championship by the time the summer break rolls around in August. 

Red Bull’s upgrade in Austria was well timed as it enabled Verstappen to log his and the team’s best result of the season so far with a second place finish, but he remains seventh in the championship and 58 points behind second-placed George Russell. 

What about Oscar Piastri - and could Mark Webber play a role? 

The major complication standing in Verstappen’s way if he wanted to join McLaren is the fact that both reigning world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are tied down to the Woking outfit on long-term contracts. 

It has been suggested that a direct seat swap that would see Verstappen move to McLaren and Piastri take his place at Red Bull could be agreed in order to engineer what would be a bombshell transfer. 

Former Red Bull driver Mark Webber acts as Piastri’s manager and the Australian has been tipped as being a potentially key mover in any deal. However, Piastri is understood to be happy at McLaren and is not looking to leave. 

“The reason there might be a space, people are thinking, is because Oscar Piastri is managed by Mark Webber, who has strong Red Bull connections, hence the idea of some kind of driver swap,” Slater added. 

“In terms of where Oscar Piastri’s mind is at. Senior figures at McLaren are telling me he is settled at McLaren, he is working hard and working well to prove his own prospects of winning a championship at the team. 

“He is not thinking ‘this is Lando Norris’s team and I need to move’. That is not his mindset at the moment.”

Intriguingly, McLaren chief Brown did not completely shut the door on the notion of signing Verstappen when he was given the opportunity to do so ahead of Sunday’s race in Spielberg. 

"I would be very surprised if Lando or Oscar went elsewhere because they are very happy," Brown said during an interview with Sky Sports F1’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz on the grid. 

"Of course we have got contracts, but, even besides that, contracts aside, we are very happy with them, and they are very happy here. If for some strange reason, someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub, then of course Max is a four-time world champion."