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Hamilton’s spiky exchanges with Ferrari | 02:42
As McLaren’s dominant performance at the Australian Grand Prix brewed, McLaren boss Zak Brown was already happily stirring the pot in Melbourne with comments sure to draw the ire of the Red Bull garage.
“Oh I think he’ll leave at the end of this year. Most likely to Merc (Mercedes),” Brown told The UK Telegraph about the future of Red Bull’s prized asset, Max Verstappen.
Brown — part of a strong McLaren rivalry with Red Bull and its boss Christian Horner — was speaking before the race when he predicted the F1 off-contract silly circus will produce the biggest shock of all-time in 2025.
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With Brown’s McLaren team flying high as the team to beat in 2025 the outspoken American is no longer holding back on his views, happy to stoke the rivalry with Red Bull and fan the flames of speculation of driver movement that has become the biggest talking point in recent years.
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When it comes to driver movement, there is no bigger name in the paddock than Verstappen. And with both Mercedes drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli off contract in 2025, Brown believes the Dutch four-times world champion will be high on their target list.
He also suggested another big-money team could land Verstappen, but still believed Mercedes would be his most likely destination.
“There’s been talk of Aston Martin, too, with Adrian Newey joining. But as great as Adrian is – and he’s the greatest ever – you need a whole team around you,” Brown said.
Brown says Verstappen will look to position himself with the strongest team possible in 2026 as F1 moves into a new era of regulations.
Red Bull started 2025 reasonably well with Verstappen second at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend, but there’s a good chance Mercedes will be the team in the strongest position under the new engine regulations next season.
“If I was betting, I’d bet on Merc,” Brown said of Verstappen’s future.
“In the last 10 years, they’ve won the championship seven or eight times. Last year they won five (sic four) 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.”
Verstappen’s lucrative Red Bull contract, rumoured to be worth about A$85m-a-year, doesn’t run out until 2028, though it’s likely to include performance-related exit clauses that could give the Dutchman an out, should the team face continued struggles.
It also emerged last year, amid an internal struggle at the team following allegations of inappropriate behaviour levelled at Horner, that his stay at Red Bull is also contingent on advisor Helmut Marko staying, too.
Whether Brown genuinely believes Verstappen is nearing the exit door at Milton Keynes, or is simply preying on a potential sore point for his biggest rival, is unclear.
It’s worth noting that Brown and Horner openly do not see eye-to-eye and are part of one of the F1 paddock’s biggest simmering feuds.
As part of Drive To Survive season 7, Horner is heard saying “Zak is a prick” while their tension forms a key narrative of the season.
There have been questions about the legitimacy of their distaste for one another, but in speaking with The Telegraph, Brown set the record straight.
“Oh, it’s genuine,” Brown said about his feud with Horner. “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.”
