McLaren has firmly established itself as the dominant force in Formula 1, but CEO Zak Brown is not focused solely on his own drivers, as his admiration for a key rival remains clear.
As Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris battle for the drivers' championship, having won 11 of the opening 14 grands prix between them, the once-unbeatable combination of Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing has been left to pick up the scraps.
The McLaren duo are separated by 31 points, whilst Verstappen languishes in a distant third, 94 points adrift of the lead.
With the constructors’ title all but secured for the Woking team, it will mean successive crowns for the first time since the early 1990s.
The American once lived in the Netherlands, Max's home nation, for a year while competing against Jos Verstappen in the Benelux Formula Opel Lotus championship.
"But Jos won pretty much everything… Jos is truly a driver who was far more talent than his final results might suggest," Brown explained in an interview with De Telegraaf. "He never really got a fair shake in Formula 1.
"Jos, of course, ended up right next to Michael Schumacher at Benetton, and that might not have been ideal for him. I enjoyed my time in the Netherlands, and it was always my dream to one day race for McLaren."
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A future team-mate?
While Brown fulfilled his dream of leading McLaren, his history with the Verstappens has clearly left a lasting impression, leading to questions about whether he would ever want to work with the four-time F1 drivers' champion.
His answer underlines a potential partnership outside the grand prix paddock, having been outspoken about being more than content with his line-up of Piastri and Norris in the past.
"Well, ideally, I'd like to have Max as my team-mate in endurance racing. Because he recently showed at the Nordschleife under a pseudonym [Franz Hermann] just how fast he is there too," Brown stated.
"Max is a fantastic driver, a four-time champion for a reason. It's a pleasure for me to work with all the drivers in the McLaren programme anyway. And with Max? Who knows, someday..."
McLaren is embarking on an endurance programme from 2027, first starting with the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
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