Formula 1 · Driver Market

Why Verstappen’s McLaren Contact Isn’t About 2027 At All

Reports of secret talks between Max Verstappen’s camp and Zak Brown have set the paddock alight. But every seat that might actually be open for 2027 is already spoken for — which points to a very different motive.

Reports of informal contact between Max Verstappen’s management and McLaren CEO Zak Brown broke just before the Austrian Grand Prix, and the paddock has barely stopped talking about it since. The Daily Mail described the meeting as “hush-hush,” Sky Sports News later claimed it was Verstappen’s own camp that initiated the conversation, and his manager Raymond Vermeulen has since told German outlet Bild there was “no truth” to suggestions of actual negotiations. What’s not in dispute is that a meeting took place — Brown himself has never denied it. The more interesting question is what it was actually for, because the obvious explanation doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

The clause that started it all

Verstappen’s contract with Red Bull runs through to the end of 2028, but it contains a performance-linked exit clause: if he isn’t inside the top two of the drivers’ championship by an unspecified point during the August summer break, he gains the right to leave. There is also believed to be a mechanism allowing him to delay formally notifying Red Bull that he’s activating the clause until as late as October, giving him a longer window to weigh his options even after the trigger point passes.

With four race weekends remaining before that deadline and Verstappen currently seventh in the standings — around 98 to 101 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, depending on the round — the clause looks all but certain to become active. That reality alone was enough to turn any contact with a rival team into a major story.

Why McLaren doesn’t actually add up as a 2027 destination

Here’s where the story gets more complicated than the headlines suggest. McLaren has no vacancy to offer. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are both signed to long-term deals, and Zak Brown has been unambiguous on the point.

I’d be very surprised if Lando or Oscar went elsewhere, because they are very happy. Of course they have contracts, but besides that, we’re very happy with them and they are very happy here. — Zak Brown, McLaren CEO

Pressed separately on whether he’d sign Verstappen given the chance, Brown didn’t dodge the sentiment — but was equally clear about the constraint. He said he’d sign the four-time champion in a heartbeat if he had a spare seat, but he simply doesn’t have one, and Norris and Piastri “haven’t emptied out their lockers.” Reports floating an Oscar Piastri swap to Red Bull as the mechanism for freeing up a McLaren seat remain speculative rather than confirmed by either team.

Every other door looks closed too

The wider picture makes McLaren’s lack of vacancy even more significant, because it isn’t an isolated case. Every other genuine top seat for 2027 already appears locked down. Charles Leclerc recently extended his Ferrari contract into the next decade, and Lewis Hamilton holds a Ferrari deal for 2027 with a reported option into 2028. At Mercedes, George Russell used the Austrian Grand Prix weekend to state flatly that he’ll be racing for the team next year, calling it “100 percent” certain and not even worth discussing with team boss Toto Wolff. Nineteen-year-old Antonelli, meanwhile, is expected to be tied down long-term regardless, with performances this season that have made the question moot anyway. Wolff has since confirmed he has no interest in changing that pairing, describing Verstappen as effectively “off the radar” for Mercedes.

Aston Martin, once considered a plausible option given Adrian Newey’s presence there, has fallen out of contention entirely after a torrid start to the year that has left the team fighting at the back of the grid rather than for wins.

So what were the talks actually about?

Strip away the assumption that this is a 2027 power play, and a more coherent explanation emerges: this is about 2028, and about leverage in the present. Several key figures from Red Bull’s own recent past are already inside McLaren’s technical structure — Rob Marshall is established there, and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who has worked alongside Verstappen for years, is already confirmed to join the team in 2028. That timeline lines up naturally with when McLaren’s current driver contracts might next come up for renewal, making it a far more realistic window for an actual seat than 2027 ever was.

In the shorter term, going public with market interest — whether or not the meeting amounted to anything concrete — serves Verstappen well regardless of outcome. It keeps his options visibly open, signals to Red Bull that patience has limits, and does so at a moment when the team has genuine reason to want him to stay. Red Bull’s Austrian Grand Prix upgrade package delivered Verstappen’s best result of the season, a recovery drive to second after a qualifying crash, and he was notably guarded when asked what more he needed to see from the team to stay.

They know, but I don’t need to talk too much about it. — Max Verstappen, on what Red Bull needs to show him

• Vermeulen has publicly maintained that staying with Red Bull remains the priority, provided the car is competitive.
• Toto Wolff has described Verstappen as “off the radar” for Mercedes following Russell’s 2027 confirmation.
• Rob Marshall and incoming 2028 signing Gianpiero Lambiase give McLaren a genuine long-term Red Bull pedigree.
• Red Bull’s Austrian upgrade gave Verstappen his best result of 2026, complicating the exit narrative in the short term.

None of that rules out Verstappen eventually leaving Red Bull — the exit clause is real, and the underperformance that triggered it hasn’t gone away. But treating the McLaren contact as an imminent 2027 switch misreads the driver market as it actually stands right now. With no seat open anywhere among the sport’s top teams next year, this looks far more like Verstappen quietly setting the stage for 2028, while making sure Red Bull feels the pressure to keep delivering in the meantime.