Jul.4 (GMM) Zak Brown has confirmed McLaren held talks with Max Verstappen’s camp, while insisting there is still no room for the four-time world champion.
After days of speculation linking Verstappen with McLaren, Brown was asked directly at Silverstone how serious the discussions had become.
“They didn’t go anywhere,” the McLaren CEO replied.
“I’ve got my two drivers, so there’s nothing to report.”
Asked if that meant any potential move was off the table for the foreseeable future, Brown answered: “Correct.”
He also reiterated that McLaren simply has no vacant race seat.
“I haven’t really thought about that because I’ve got two drivers in the seats,” Brown said when asked what McLaren could offer Verstappen.
“What I couldn’t offer him was a seat in my race car. But I think McLaren’s an awesome team.
“We’ve got a great race team that’s had a lot of success, and I think it’s a good place to work, whether you’re a racing driver or a team principal or a mechanic.”
Meanwhile, Brown also explained why McLaren is not yet using Mercedes’ latest engine specification despite customer teams being entitled to receive it.
“You’ve got to cycle through your engines and we’ve got life left on our current engines,” he said.
“We need to wait till we do an engine change. Williams got theirs because Carlos had his issues.
“It’s just a timing sequence.”
Brown admitted McLaren would like the latest specification as soon as possible.
“Any time you have performance that you know is coming but you don’t have it on your car yet, you want to get it as quickly as possible,” he said.
“But I wouldn’t say it’s a frustration. It just is what it is and we just keep our head down and keep pushing hard.
“It’ll be in the back in not too long.”
Asked whether McLaren had specifically requested the upgraded engine for Silverstone, Brown replied: “I don’t believe we did.”
