Zak Brown was clearly satisfied with Oscar Piastri taking pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, but he was also complimentary of other frontrunner teams. The American praised both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai. All but one rival gets this treatment from him.
The second Grand Prix weekend of the 2025 season is drawing ever closer. Media day for the Chinese Grand Prix kicks off early on Thursday morning for those in Europe, but for now, GPblog can bring you the latest news from the F1 paddock. Zak Brown believes that Max Verstappen will be driving for a different team in 2026, teams suffer from freight issues at the Shanghai International Circuit, and will Honda be prompted to leave Formula 1? Find out now!
It is well-known that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff are not the best friends on the F1 grid. McLaren CEO Zak Brown also sees little in common with the Briton, something the Red Bull man also reciprocated in the latest series of Drive to Survive.
Being rivals for the world championship titles, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and McLaren CEO Zak Brown will appear together at the FIA press conference this weekend in Shanghai, which will take place on Friday. Therefore, they could immediately reply to each other as well, if they do not agree on certain things. In terms of the drivers, Lando Norris will be present.
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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During the Australian Grand Prix, having gotten past Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri seemed poised to take the challenge to his teammate, at the time in lead, however Tom Stallard, the Australian’s race engineer came on the radio to tell his driver to hold position when he seem ready to pounce on his British teammate. McLaren’s CEO, Zak Brown, now reveals the logic behind the team order.
Oscar Piastri is eager to go for victory in Melbourne, but is not going to take any unnecessary risks in the battle with Lando Norris to make it happen. Although McLaren has not enforced team orders, the Australian stresses that his priority is to get the best possible result for the team.
Lando Norris has said that there have “been discussions” and that “there are clearly rules” when it comes to team orders at McLaren for 2025. Both he and teammate Oscar Piastri locked out the front row in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix, and that will result in some close fighting from the pair of them when the lights go out on Sunday.
In Formula 1, it is common practice: if a team is successful, its competitors try to snatch their best personnel. Red Bull Racing knows it all too well, following the recent exits the team has experienced. McLaren is now the top team and, almost naturally, the British now have to deal with what Red Bull suffered from for a long time: staff being poached.
Mclaren have reached an agreement with Oscar Piastri to prolongue their ‘winning partnership’ ahead of the driver of the #81 car’s home race, the 2025 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix.
