McLaren’s Zak Brown: Max Verstappen joining Mercedes would be ‘scary’

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has described the prospect of Max Verstappen joining Mercedes as “scary” amid increasing speculation the four-time champion could switch teams as early as next year.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff expressed his interest in signing Verstappen during last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, but played down suggestions negotiations are already at an advanced stage.

Verstappen has a Red Bull contract until the end of 2028, but performance-related break clauses could allow for an early exit if he is not in the top three positions of the championship by the summer break.

Mercedes is seen as the most likely destination outside of Red Bull for the 25-year-old as it appears to be well-placed to make a strong start under Formula 1’s new regulations in 2026.

Brown, whose McLaren team has emerged as the class of the field under the current ruleset, admits the prospect of going up against a Mercedes team with Verstappen would be a major challenge.

“That’s a bit scary,” he told ESPN ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix. “I think Mercedes is clearly on a forward trajectory, Red Bull clearly is not at the at the moment, and Max is an unbelievable talent.

“So Max in a Mercedes — that’s some pretty serious competition.”

McLaren has its current driver line-up of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri signed to long-term contracts, and Brown confirmed he has no interest in pursuing Verstappen, even if he becomes available.

“No, I couldn’t be happier with our driver lineup,” Brown added. “I’ve said it from day one that I think we have the best driver lineup in Formula 1 — I think sitting here right now it would be difficult to argue that factually it’s statistically true.

“And because of the characters they are the talent they are on the track off the track I wouldn’t trade our two drivers for any other drivers on the grid.”

McLaren’s drivers are currently split by 15 points in this year’s drivers’ standings, with Verstappen 61 points behind after retiring from last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix on the opening lap.

No driver in F1’s history has recovered from such a big points deficit to win the title, but with 13 races left to run Brown is not ruling out Verstappen or fourth-place George Russell, who is a further nine points adrift.

“No, it’s way too early,” he added. “He’s an unbelievable talent of course, and I don’t think George Russell is out of the game. You know we’re not even halfway through this season.

“We see how quickly our season turned around last year. There’s absolutely no reason why that can’t happen with Max or the Mercedes specifically.

“George, because of where he is in the points, and even Ferrari, so I think we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s great that we have a nice lead.

“It’s great that we extended it this last weekend but we got a lot of racing to go, so I still think you’ve got four drivers realistically in the fight for the drivers’ championship.”