McLaren leaves door “wide open” for Max Verstappen despite Red Bull deal

McLaren Formula 1 boss Zak Brown says the door is “wide open” for Max Verstappen to join his team in the future, despite his new long-term deal with Red Bull.  

Verstappen held talks with McLaren Racing CEO Brown when he was weighing up his F1 future before eventually committing to fresh terms with Red Bull that will see him remain with the team until the end of 2030. 

While Brown never shut down the possibility of signing Verstappen, he repeatedly insisted he was happy with his current driver pairing consisting of reigning world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. 

Verstappen’s deal may run to the end of 2030 on paper, but in reality it changes little, given the four-time world champion still has performance clauses that would enable him to leave early if Red Bull is still struggling for competitiveness next year.

That could open the door to a future switch to McLaren, though such a move would require Brown to drop one of his current drivers, with Norris and Piastri contracted through to the end of 2030 and 2028 respectively. 

Speaking about his recent discussions with Verstappen in an interview with Dutch publication De Telegraaf, Brown said: “I spoke to Max a couple of times last summer. Simply because I wanted to get to know him better. 

“If I had to use one word to describe him now, it would be a word that wouldn’t have occurred to me before those conversations. Namely: charming. I bet no one who doesn’t know him well would describe him that way. But I’m really impressed by him. A racer through and through.

“His focus and the way he looks at motorsport from a driver’s perspective I found very impressive. You can see it in how involved Max is with the GT3 program and how technically proficient he is. Fernando had that too.” 

And Brown admitted he would “love to work with” Verstappen one day in the future. 

“The talks were more exploratory, to get to know each other better. Because you never know what the future will bring,” Brown added. “But I came away much more impressed than I had expected, from an individual standpoint. I feel like: I can really go racing with this guy. Because I hate racing against him.

“The door is still wide open for Max. For 2028, 2029, or whatever year. I enjoyed getting to know him better and would love to work with him someday.”