Zak Brown downplays possibility of Max Verstappen following Gianpiero Lambiase to McLaren

Early in April, McLaren announced that Lambiase, Verstappen's longtime race engineer, will be joining them once his Red Bull contract expires in 2028.

Lambiase is another high-profile Red Bull Racing employee to leave for McLaren, whose Chief Technical Officer and Chief Designer, Rob Marshall, also came from Red Bull and was behind the dominant MCL39 in the 2025 Formula 1 season.

But Brown insists the signing of Lambiase is simply a decision to strengthen his team. He said: “My job as CEO is to get the best talent, to think long term, to have the most strength on the pit wall or at the factory in design, wherever the case may be.

“Andrea [Stella] has done a fantastic job, our technical team, and GP’s a huge talent, so when the opportunity presented itself to strengthen our racing team, that’s exactly what we’re going to do, whether it’s a racing driver or an engineer or strategist, whatever the case may be.

"So I’m very happy he’s going to be joining us," the American maintained.

However, the timing of the announcement means Lambiase will have to serve the current and the upcoming season with Red Bull, which would make matters awkward, especially when the team starts excluding him from certain meetings and blocking certain information from him.

Brown said: “We know how this game works. At some point it’ll probably be uncomfortable, having someone that you know is going to a rival team.

“I know my general view is if someone wants to move on, you need to do it in a measured way, but if someone doesn’t want to be in my team anymore, I’ve never been one that feels like people steal people from each other. Drivers, sponsors—you lose them, or they have interest in something else.

“2028 is when his contract’s through. We’ll wait if that’s what’s necessary—if there’s something to be done earlier, then of course we’d be interested, but I think right now we’re all stuck into 2026," he added.

A recent example of such a situation was Lewis Hamilton announcing his move to Ferrari while he still had one full season to serve with Mercedes.

Brown went on: “When Lewis went to Ferrari, they announced it early—at some point Mercedes starts understandably cutting off knowledge that he might have, and that’s just how the business works.

“We’ll see how it plays out—we've got time; we know we’re all settled for 2026, so we’ll chat about it when the time’s right.”

With Verstappen's future at Red Bull beyond his current contract (end of 2028) still unclear, many saw that Lambiase's move would be a precursor for the Dutchman's possible future move to the Papaya team.

But Brown denied any connection, saying: “I couldn’t be happier with our driver line-up.

“Lando and Oscar are not only two awesome guys, on the track, off the track, but as teammates. What’s made McLaren successful here is the chemistry that we have in the garage; at the factory; with our pit wall; all throughout the racing team.

“I couldn’t be happier with what we have, and zero intention in changing," Brown concluded. (Source: Sky Sports F1)