Zak Brown says there's not a Formula 1 team that wouldn't want Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris

You have to give it to Brown, as McLaren has one of the best driver pairings on the grid, combining youth and experience, and has delivered two F1 Constructors' Titles for the team, while Norris bagged a maiden Drivers Crown in 2025.

But there have been rumors recently surrounding Piastri, who seems to be on the Red Bull Racing radar as a plan B should Max Verstappen decide to leave them or even leave the sport as a whole.

The announcement that Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen's long-time race engineer, is moving to McLaren in 2028 has fueled speculation that the Dutchman may be following him there.

Both Red Bull Racing and McLaren have moved to deny any of this speculation, but as we know in F1, anything is possible.

In an interview with The Athletic, Brown was asked about other teams' interests in his drivers; he said: "I would imagine there's not a team on the grid that wouldn't want to have Oscar and Lando driving for them.

"My general view, contracts aside, [is] our job is to create an environment where our drivers don't want to drive anywhere else, or for that matter, our employees or our sponsors don't want to sponsor another team.

"My job—our job—is to create an environment where you go, 'Well, you've got a contract'. Yes, we have that anyway, for the record.

"But you don't want to hold someone because you've got a piece of paper; you want [them] to go, 'This is the team I want to race with, the team I want to be on, the team I want to be a mechanic on, the team I want to sponsor'.

"That's what I want to do: try and create that environment. I think there's a lot of talent inside McLaren that other racing teams would like to have," Brown concluded.