With rumours of Max Verstappen holding talks with McLaren continuing, is it worth hypothesising that, should he make the move, it is the ideal Formula 1 rival for him to leave Red Bull for?
Motorsport Week understands that Verstappen is increasingly dissatisfied with Red Bull, and has rebuffed its attempts to buy out his apparent contract clause that enables him to seek alternative drives, should he enter the F1 summer break lower than second in the championship.
This is now mathematically impossible, and, as a result, it seems that Verstappen is prepared to walk away should he feel it is ultimately the best decision.
If we were to hypothesise, just for the next few hundred words or so at least, and say the orange-on-papaya union takes place and Verstappen indeed becomes a McLaren driver, what sort of culture, ethos and race team should he expect to walk into? And how would that give him the chance to continue his winning streak and help him to more victories and titles?
Schumacher and Hamilton – the red-pilled winners
Let’s compare with how other drivers made similar moves.
In 1996, Michael Schumacher took an eyebrow-raising leap and joined Ferrari. Whilst the fortunes of the Scuderia, and his then-team Benetton, were very different to Red Bull and McLaren at present, Schumacher was, like Verstappen now, in his mid-to-late 20s, and at the peak of his powers as a racing driver. The similarity in team scenarios was that Ferrari was, naturally steeped in its own culture, ideology and methods, such as the way McLaren can be considered to be right now.
Schumacher used his influence to convince technical guru Ross Brawn, and designer Rory Byrne, to vacate their own roles at Enstone and take up positions at Maranello. They brought with them two successive World Championships to back up their worthiness, and Team Principal Jean Todt allowed the restructuring to take shape.
Schumacher lost out on the title in the final rounds in his second and third seasons, might have won it in the third – had it not been for a broken leg at Silverstone – and after achieving it in the fourth, began a streak of five titles in a row, cementing Schumacher’s status as one of the all-time greats.
Now let’s take a look at another great of the sport making his own move to Italy.
Lewis Hamilton suffered the worst season of his F1 career last year, his first in red. So much so, that he failed to score a single podium finish – a first in his 19 seasons – and appeared withdrawn, morose and disillusioned throughout.
But his second season, of which he is nearly at the midway point, has been a contrast.
With a win in Spain, Hamilton’s comparative cheerfulness, conveyed since pre-season testing, has been justified, owing to his influence on the development on the SF-26, which has recently seen a shift in balance towards him in terms of results, with teammate Charles Leclerc’s win in Silverstone breaking a long streak of inferiority.
One big difference between Hamilton and Schumacher’s arrivals at Ferrari is that Hamilton has not been afforded is the ability to tempt his former Mercedes colleagues over, but a similarity appears to be the use of clout and aura which Hamilton has used to convince Fred Vasseur to allow changes to be made behind the scenes that have evidently left the 41-year-old far more comfortable.
Once you are champion of the world multiple times over, that aura begins to permeate through you like brine through an egg, until it is irreversibly pickled. And Verstappen, is at present, one of the biggest eggs in the jar.
There is very much an air of the young Schumacher about him: combative, fast, apparently unwavering in his nerve, and often, by some sections of the media, vilified as an aloof pantomime villain. But the often unseen Verstappen is, again, a lot like Schumacher: personable, politely determined and a figure that exudes galvanisation.
Schumacher and Hamilton – men who brought their respective auras to Ferrari
Max Verstappen – the man with a similar aura to Schumacher and Hamilton
Those latter attributes no doubt helped Red Bull overcome a tricky start to 2025 and helped him overturn a 100 + point deficit after the summer break began, and narrowly missed out on the title by just two points. But it seems that, at the moment, it is not having the same effect on those in Milton Keynes.
With the team losing key personnel by the bucketload over the last few seasons, there is no doubt a position of strength has been lost, and with mentor and Red Bull junior programme chief Helmet Marko now retired, Verstappen has lost a bundle of allies, his biggest one still to come.
His race engineer and friend Gianpiero Lambiase will be vacating his spot on the pit wall for one at McLaren “no later than 2028,” and many have speculated that it will be the beginning of a long-term plan to see him take the helm as Team Principal, should Andrea Stella wish to make a return to Italy.
This is where a Verstappen move to McLaren would vastly differ to those of Schumacher and Hamilton’s at Ferrari. Hamilton is working with who is already there; Schumacher shoehorned in his known and trusted figures to help him achieve champion status again. But for Verstappen, he would have an oven-ready team to help him scale the heights to F1 glory again.
Lambiase would be a key ally, their bond just as evident in the British-Italian’s ability to backchat Verstappen mid-race than it is when they publicly chuck compliments at each-other out of the car. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Rob Marshall, a former Red Bull figurehead, has designed the MCL38 and MCL39, the cars that broke McLaren’s barren streaks and helped return glory to Woking, and is perhaps one of the most understated designers in the sport. And Will Courtenay, another engineering whizz, now occupies the role of Sporting Director at McLaren. To put it simply, Verstappen will not be short of familiar faces when he arrives.
Could Max Verstappen rewrite the ‘papaya rulebook’?
Culture? Ethos? Mentality? To me, it aligns. Winners, unrelenting yearning for perfection and success. Zak Brown may have been an adversary to Verstappen’s former boss Christian Horner – full of mutual needle, passive aggression and angst – but I feel there would be no lingering ill feeling through that old rivalry.
What might be Verstappen’s biggest obstacle? Papaya Rules, most likely.
At Ferrari, Schumacher always had the benefit of being the outright number one driver. All teammates knew their place, and always had the skill to run them into the ground anyway.
Hamilton has rarely benefitted from team orders, but he hasn’t needed to. He saw off Nico Rosberg twice in three championship fights, firmly outperformed Valtteri Bottas and has largely been a match for Leclerc over the first nine races this year.
Verstappen would likely have Lando Norris as his stablemate. Culturally speaking, it’s a big challenge. Norris feels like Mr McLaren right now. The fluorescent yellow colour of his helmet is easily identifiable next to that unique papaya. A different character out of the car, Norris is, more often than not, unfailingly cheerful and smiley, and that sort of personality has made him a hugely popular driver, not just in Britain, but across the world.
In conjunction to that, Verstappen would, of course, have to adhere to those infamous Papaya Rules. Race each other, but don’t have contact. Don’t hinder each other but fight together for the common good – the team itself.
Would Verstappen rebel against that? Frankly, I don’t think there would be a need to.
Verstappen faced Norris as his chief title rival in 2024. McLaren’s Marshall-designed car was, for most of the season, the car to beat, and Norris finally got a taste of victory as a Grand Prix driver for the first time. But with that, endured the psychological slog of being Verstappen’s contender for the crown. And Verstappen saw him off.
In fact, such is Verstappen’s well-placed self-confidence, he proclaimed, at the end of the championship last year, that he would have sewn-up his fifth title and with races to spare had he been driving a McLaren. And I don’t think anyone that disagreed with that assertion truly believed their own denial.
Verstappen is mentally the toughest out there, and that’s before you get to the skill levels. To say he’d be phased or daunted by the prospect of racing for McLaren or racing Norris would be wrong.
There may still be many twists and turns left in this ongoing saga, but if Max Verstappen is to make that seismic jump and line up next season in a new car for a new team, then the bare bones of what he is about will not change.
It just might look a lot more orange.
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