21 hours Ago By Jamie Woodhouse
Insisting he has a “good” relationship with Max Verstappen, McLaren boss Zak Brown hit out at how that is portrayed, while Verstappen knows “how the game is played” with Red Bull the target. After two dominant runs to title doubles for Verstappen and Red Bull , McLaren emerged in F1 2024 as a title threat, McLaren’s Lando Norris delaying Verstappen’s fourth straight title win until Las Vegas, while Ferrari has now joined McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship race going into the season finale in Abu Dhabi, with Red Bull out of the running. Additional reporting by Thomas Maher In the course of that battle, Verstappen and Brown, the McLaren Racing CEO, have found themselves in verbal exchanges on several occasions, including after Verstappen secured the title in Las Vegas, Verstappen brutally quipping on live TV to Brown that now he has proved he does not need a dominant car to win the title.
But, Brown is shocked that anyone could have perceived that as a malicious dig, while he also opened up on his reaction to Verstappen’s “who is Zak Brown” comment from earlier in the year, which Brown responded to via a sarcastic text to “introduce myself”. Reflecting on that post-Las Vegas GP exchange, Brown told De Telegraaf : “Max has a good sense of humour. A joke like that, that’s part of it, isn’t it? It’s just a shame that people sometimes misjudge that.
“I said he has now beaten my Senna guy and then I read back that I was comparing Lando Norris to Ayrton Senna. But I was just talking about Senna, because Max has now become World Champion more often. “Remember at Silverstone when Max said, ‘who is Zak Brown?’ I then sent him a funny message and said: ‘I want to introduce myself, you may not know me, but I manage McLaren’.
“And later in the season we met at Monza, shook hands and said he now had a face to go with it. “Nowadays, so much chaos is created on social media. I took no offence to what he said in Las Vegas.
Are you kidding. I’m glad our relationship is good.” Brown is no stranger to a spot of verbal warfare, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner having been a common target in F1 2024.
However, Brown says Verstappen is well aware that this is how F1 works and it is not personal. “Max is a smart guy and I think he also knows how the game is played,” Brown claimed. “That it’s often not towards him, but more towards Red Bull.
” 👉 F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the 2024 grid? 👉 F1 2026 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2026 grid? The verbal battle extended recently to Verstappen and Norris, after Verstappen claimed that he would have secured his fourth title sooner if he were in Norris’ McLaren, to which the Brit told the Dutchman he “should start doing comedy”. And at the Qatar Grand Prix, Verstappen was asked whether he was surprised to hear that kind of comeback. “No, but no one needs to respond,” he said.
“I know perfectly well for myself what I can and cannot do. “We don’t need to spend time on trying to slag people off or whatever. Championship is done, we try again next year.
” McLaren and Ferrari will go head-to-head for the F1 2024 Constructors’ title in Abu Dhabi. McLaren hold a lead of 21 points over Ferrari and both teams are bidding to end an extended drought. Not since their 2008 Constructors’ Championship win has Ferrari tasted F1 title glory, while for McLaren, they are bidding to win their first Constructors’ title since 1998.
Read next: How McLaren v Ferrari title fight was altered by controversial FIA decisions.
