Max Verstappen is still the King of the market
The surprise departure of Gianpiero Lambiase from Red Bull has reopened – somewhat earlier than usual – the usual hunt for rumors about the future of Max Verstappen. Thus, given the not particularly favorable moment for the Milton Keynes team, said to be lagging more in chassis than in engine, the most debated new hypothesis is now that of the Dutch champion’s next move not to Mercedes but to Woking, to reunite with the friend-engineer who will leave Red Bull at the end of 2027. A hypothesis that also seems to intrigue Johnny Herbert, who spoke about it during an interview with Vision4Sport.
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The future is at McLaren, according to Johnny Herbert
“The race engineer is always a fundamental figure – explains the former British driver – in the connection between the cockpit and the outside world, and Max has already said in the past how important it is for him to have someone on the pit wall he can trust. This is what Verstappen and Lambiase have right now, a very strong relationship, they exchange jokes on the radio and this shows how much they manage to bring out the best in each other. And, with all this, I would be very surprised if they didn’t want to work together again”.
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For this reason too, the McLaren path for Verstappen is back in the news after the Dutch driver himself had somewhat snubbed Zak Brown’s team in recent years: “It’s a logical choice, given the potential McLaren had at least until last year. Now you see what they are producing at the moment, and it could be the right place to go because it seems they could be dominant again in the future. So it would seem like a perfect solution for him. I still believe that negotiations with Mercedes went very far last season, and that he did well but was smart to give himself a year to see how things stand”. “Now, however, with Lambiase leaving in 2027, the cards on the table have changed for Max Verstappen”, concludes former F1 driver Johnny Herbert.
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