If Verstappen wants to go to McLaren, who will leave: Norris or Piastri?

Rob Marshall, Will Courtenay and soon Gianpiero Lambiase; all of them had (or have) key roles in the successes of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. They ultimately ended up at McLaren on hefty salaries.

It then becomes logical that Verstappen himself is now being linked with the Woking-based team, even if that team was not the former champion’s first choice at the moment he leaves Red Bull Racing.

Zak Brown, McLaren’s CEO, is a big fan of Verstappen, as he has made clear on multiple occasions in recent years. In any case, Verstappen’s salary would not be a problem for the team, which is owned by Bahraini state-owned Mumtalakat Holding Company, which has an estimated wealth of 17.6 billion dollars. 70 million or so can surely be spared to at least pay Verstappen the same as Red Bull is reportedly doing.

The only ‘problem’ for McLaren would be that it has Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri under contract for many years. The former is the reigning world champion and seems to be the team’s favorite; although McLaren always denies this, it’s a notion that Piastri, and certainly his manager, Mark Webber, do have in mind.

In recent seasons, Webber was at virtually every Grand Prix in McLaren’s hospitality to support his protégé; this season he is essentially always absent.

Mark and Ann Webber are still his managers. In the paddock, he still has the support of Emma Murray, who has been with him since the beginning of his career. Pedro Matos is also there, who had worked with him at Prema since he was in F4.

Still, in the F1 paddock there is the story that the relationship between Webber and McLaren has cooled, partly due to the Australian’s feeling that Piastri is playing second fiddle. Webber is therefore said to be looking around for an alternative place for his compatriot, preferably a team where Piastri is the undisputed number one. McLaren denies this and says the relationship with Piastri has never been so good, as team boss Andrea Stella explained in Suzuka recently.

Should Verstappen decide to swap Red Bull for McLaren, the Austrians seem the most logical candidate to reel in Piastri and try to use him to set the course back upwards.