The moment McLaren overtook Mercedes in the race to sign Max Verstappen

PlanetF1.com reported last week that Max Verstappen is in advanced talks to leave Red Bull for McLaren for the F1 2027 season.

For a long time it seemed that Mercedes would be Verstappen’s next destination after Red Bull. Then a single announcement earlier this year saw McLaren suddenly enter the chat…

Max Verstappen in advanced talks to leave Red Bull for McLaren

A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix

The three certainties in life?

Death, taxes and Max Verstappen being linked with a move to Mercedes.

It has become a feature of every summer over the last few years, as inevitable as sunrise itself.

So brace yourself, dear reader, for weeks of breathless chatter about performance clauses and flight trackers.

This much is true: stuck in seventh, Verstappen has never had a better chance to activate the clause, widely believed to be in his contract, that allows him to leave Red Bull if he is lower than second in the championship at the time of the summer break.

His latest non-score at the recent British Grand Prix, leaving him 78 points behind the driver currently occupying second place (George Russell) with a maximum of 50 available in Belgium/Hungary, ensures that his exit clause will come into play for the first time.

Yet to still regard Mercedes as the favourite to sign Verstappen is to overlook the fact that the game has now changed.

What we’re hearing: Max Verstappen in advanced talks to leave Red Bull for McLaren

Max Verstappen closes in on alleged McLaren decision in rumoured Red Bull exit

Why Max Verstappen to McLaren has become impossible to ignore

As this column wrote incessantly in 2025, the opportune moment for Verstappen to join Mercedes was last year.

Why?

Because of the lingering doubts over the ultimate potential of Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

While George and Kimi offered only the promise of winning the title in 2026, Max came with the closest thing an F1 team could find to a guarantee.

With Mercedes’ return to title contention imminent, there was every possibility that those concerns over Russell and Antonelli would fade away in the first half of 2026.

And sure enough, with Antonelli living up to his status as Mini Max, what need would Mercedes have now to sign Old Max?

Why would Toto Wolff even contemplate harming the progress and personal development of Antonelli, a driver he almost seems to regard as a son, by exposing him to Verstappen?

Indeed, almost by accident Mercedes has stumbled across a perfectly balanced driver lineup over recent months: Antonelli as F1’s latest boy wonder, Russell as the slightly uninspiring, haphazard and inconsistent number two.

With Mercedes’ dominance almost certain to see Russell meet the performance targets required to trigger an automatic contract extension for 2027, it is time that the rumours of Verstappen joining Mercedes finally died.

And if not Mercedes, then where?

Aston Martin’s dreadful start to the new rules has taken that particular curveball off the table for the foreseeable future despite the obvious appeal of Adrian Newey and Honda.

Ferrari? Not when Charles Leclerc has just signed a new contract and Lewis Hamilton is in the midst of his late-career revival.

Which leaves only McLaren.

When rumours of GianPiero Lambiase leaving Red Bull first surfaced late last year, it seemed likely that whichever team signed him would stand a pretty good chance of getting Max too.

For some months it looked like that team would be Aston Martin before McLaren – never seriously regarded as a contender for Verstappen previously – announced the signing of Lambiase in April.

Out of nowhere, McLaren had just entered the chat.

Officially, Lambiase has been recruited to work under current team principal Andrea Stella in the role of chief racing officer when he arrives ‘no later’ (McLaren’s words) than 2028.

As noted in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from Monaco, however, it is starting to feel like an open secret that Lambiase will become McLaren team boss when the position next becomes available (sources have indicated that GP may have been sold this very scenario as part of his move from Red Bull).

It is true that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the driver most likely to be replaced by Verstappen, remain under contract with McLaren.

Yet just as Ferrari felt that it could not possibly turn down the chance to finally sign Lewis Hamilton in 2024, what is a Formula 1 team to do when a driver of Max’s calibre might become available?

Drop everything. That’s what.

Do whatever is necessary to sign the driver whose brilliance can turn a race – even an entire season – in his favour.

That Lambiase announcement on the morning of April 9 was the moment McLaren moved to the front of the queue for Verstappen.

Mercedes, you say?

Get with the times. That’s, like, sooooo last year…

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