Piastri-Verstappen swap? What Zak Brown said about his driver line-up
Could Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri swap seats in the future?
Zak Brown has dismissed suggestions McLaren would swap Oscar Piastri for Max Verstappen, despite Juan Pablo Montoya claiming such a move would “make sense”.
Verstappen’s future in Formula 1 has been one of the hot topics for several years, with the driver linked to Mercedes before talk of him retiring, and, more recently, moving to McLaren.
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Those rumours were ignited when Red Bull and McLaren announced that the Dutch racer’s long-time race engineer GianPiero Lambiase would join the Woking team no later than 2028.
That coincides with the final year of Verstappen’s multi-year Red Bull contract.
It’s led to speculation that the move could be a straight swap with Piastri, who would head to his manager Mark Webber’s former F1 team.
According to Montoya, it just makes sense.
“From what I’m hearing Mark Webber is not happy the way things are going for Oscar at McLaren,” he claimed on a betting website.
“A lot of times people that look after drivers will run a story like that just to stir up the pot and put pressure on the team.
“Piastri would find a seat anywhere. There’s a suggestion that Max and Piastri could do a straight swap. That makes some sense.
“Webber raced for Red Bull before. He knows Red Bull. So that would be a sensible thing.
“That would be a logical thing to do. The question is, would McLaren be comfortable spending the money that Max would want?”
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However, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has scoffed at the suggestion of a swap as he is more than happy with his line-up.
Last season Piastri and Lando Norris raced for the world title, which would’ve been a first for either, in the most amicable intra-team fight seen in decades, if not in Formula 1’s history.
Norris came out on top, with Piastri falling to third after leading mid-season. There was, however, no animosity nor infighting with both sides of the garage sharing information all the way through to the final chequered flag.
“I couldn’t be happier with our driver line-up,” Brown told Sky Sports in Miami. “Lando and Oscar are not only two great guys on and off the track, but also shine as teammates.”
He believes that is what “has made McLaren so successful… So I couldn’t be happier with what we have and have no intention of changing anything about it.”
He, though, didn’t shut the door entirely on signing Verstappen if circumstances changed.
“He’s a great racing driver,” added Brown. “If there was a chance with him, it would be a completely different, different discussion, considering the talent he has.”
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