Zak Brown issues Max Verstappen demand as Red Bull ace threatens to ruin McLaren party | F1 | Sport
Zak Brown has told his drivers to ‘get Max Verstappen out of there’ after the Dutchman clawed his way back into the title conversation. The reigning world champion is now 69 points behind series leader Oscar Piastri with seven races still to go in the 2025 season. Verstappen mounting a late title charge was out of the question before the Italian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull star travelled to Monza over 100 points behind Piastri and was winless in eight race weekends. However, back-to-back Grand Prix triumphs, combined with the Australian’s DNF in Baku, have pulled the Dutchman back into contention. While still an outsider relative to Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris, Verstappen’s pedigree means that he can’t be counted out, and with two street races remaining, another DNF for Piastri would truly bring the 27-year-old right back into the fight.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has made his thoughts crystal clear: he wants the Dutchman out of the fight. “I think you’ve got to pay attention to Max,” he told Bloomberg ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing. The constructors’ is looking very good; we had a chance to wrap it up in Baku, but let’s not talk about Baku. Hopefully, we can get the job done in Singapore.
“And what we want to do is we want our two drivers, and Max, but we’d like to kind of get him out of there, to fight for the championship and just give them equal opportunity, equal equipment, which is what we’re doing and may the best man win. That’s what we want to do.
For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.
“We’d like to not play a role if at all possible, but you get into, you know, Lando had a mechanical issue and things can happen in safety cars and things of that nature. But I think our goal is to just set Lando and Oscar up to be competing for the championship down to Abu Dhabi, and may the best driver win.”
Verstappen isn’t the only threat to Piastri’s maiden World Championship crown. Norris’ seventh-place finish in Azerbaijan moved him to within 25 points – equivalent to one race victory – of the Australian at the head of the field.
In fact, Piastri will feel fortunate to travel to Singapore with such a gap. Norris failed to capitalise fully on his team-mate’s lap-one crash in Baku last time out, and couldn’t beat Verstappen in Monza the previous race weekend, leaving seven points on the table that Sunday.
