McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has claimed Max Verstappen will walk out on his long-term Red Bull deal and join their rivals Mercedes.
Speculation has grown over Verstappen’s future as Red Bull will lose its Honda power unit supply at the end of the year and use their own designs instead from 2026. The team has already lost many of its top staff including chief technical officer Adrian Newey.
Verstappen signed his last Red Bull contract after winning his first championship with the team in 2021. That should keep him at his current team until 2028, but Brown believes he won’t see it out.
“I think he’ll leave at the end of this year,” he told The Telegraph. “Most likely to Merc.”
Earlier this year a newspaper report claimed Aston Martin was preparing to make a high-value offer to Verstappen to reunite him with both Honda and Newey.
“There’s been talk of Aston Martin, too, with Adrian Newey joining,” said Brown. “But as great as Adrian is – and he’s the greatest ever – you need a whole team around you. You need the culture. That takes time.
“If I was betting, I’d bet on Merc. In the last 10 years, they’ve won the championship seven or eight times. Last year they won five races. They have stability. We know Toto [Wolff] likes him. And I think we all feel HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] is best-equipped on the power unit side heading into the new engine regulations next year.”
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Brown also sees the potential for movement in Mercedes’ driver line-up for George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. “George is out of contract at the end of this season and Kimi will be on a series of one-years.”
The McLaren team boss has clashed several times with his opposite number at Red Bull, Christian Horner, who called him a “prick” last year. Brown said the animosity between the pair is “genuine.”
“There’s no love lost there. I don’t like how he rolls and no doubt he feels the same about me.
“But I think it’s good for the sport. You need different characters. You need these rivalries. Some are friendly, sporting rivalries. Some are a bit more vicious. It’s always been like that.”
Verstappen’s driving has been a focus of Brown’s criticism at times, particularly following his clashes with McLaren driver Lando Norris last year. But Brown has also praised the four-times world champion’s ability.
In Las Vegas last year Verstappen challenged Brown over a widely-misquoted comment of his from six months earlier, claiming he could only win the title in the fastest car. Brown later said Verstappen “is not going to take a car that’s 15th and win in it [but] he might be able to take a car that’s third-quickest and win it.”
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